Death Metal is a genre that has fallen into a trap it set on its own. There are bands like NILE or BEHEMOTH that will amaze the Metal audience with almost every single album they release or bands (that are numerous out there) that have nothing to offer to the Metal scene and just try to impress us with meaningless technical shit and mommy I am really scared brutal vocals. We are living in hard times nowadays, and our wallets are not able to lift the cost of every mediocre album that is being released.

Thank god, GROTESQUE (not to be confused with the high and mighty Swedish band that features Tomas Lindberg on vocals) do not belong to any of these two categories. The Australian death metallers were formed in June 2004 and have managed to support great acts like NILE, DECAPITATED (RIP Vitek), SUFFOCATION, DISMEMBER and PSYCROPTIC among others.

The Australian label Prime Cuts Music was able to see the talent these guys have and immediately signed them and released their debut full-length album Museum Of Human Disease (what a fine title for an album). Even though the cover artwork reminded me a lot of VOMITORY and the back of the album confirms that red background with green colors are two things that do not fit at all, I was really excited that I would listened to an Australian Death Metal band for the first time.

It seems that Australia cannot only produce dirty Hard Rock (AC/DC). GROTESQUE are playing brutal Death Metal with many technical breaks and great shredding guitar work. Their music is totally US style and resembles to bands like DECREPIT BIRTH, SUFFOCATION and a bit of SPAWN OF POSSESSION. Even though I expected to listen to some classic breaks where the bass would tear the place apart, I found nothing that met my expectations, but that's not a problem for sure. The fact that Muller (bassist) is playing with his fingers is more than enough for me (being a bass player myself). The drumming is great thanks to Mr. Trevor Owen, a drummer with incredible talent and technique. Not only his playing is fast and technical, but it is also clever offering the songs exactly what they need.

The man that is the under the spotlight in this band is - in my humble opinion - the band's singer, Tarren Whitfield. His guttural vocals and his harsh screams are incredible, making him one of the best unknown Death Metal singers I have ever heard! This guy is totally awesome! I believe that Museum Of  Human Disease is a release that is good enough for a debut album and shows that the band can kick some major ass, but there are moments that the band's music makes you get a bit tired. The fact is that GROTESQUE have unleashed their power and we are more than sure that they will keep up the good work delivering great things in the near future.