Northern Ireland's Putrefy have been around for some time now, in fact they've been in existence since way back in 1992. So it may come as a surprise to hear that "Knelt Before The Sarcophagus Of Humanity" is only their third full length release, although demos aplenty have appeared throughout their career. Brutal Death Metal is the name of the game, and Putrefy deliver admirably enough, though it's not going to entice those who aren't fans of this brand of heaviness.

When I got the promo I was really hoping it would be quite poor, purely so I could say the band were 'knelt before the sarcophagus of their own career', and while I'm mildly annoyed that I can't use my rubbish pun to good effect, there is of course the upside of it not being a bad album.

The band charge through this collection of track with predictable speed and intensity, and while it's listenable, and gives you the ever familiar mental bruising that only music of this type can provide, there are moments of weakness, but please feel free to disagree with me. Connor Brown's vocals are pretty good by and large. His death growls are as perfect as ever but, his pig squeals just sound ridiculous. In fairness pig squeals have always made me struggle to keep a straight face, but if I'm listening to a Brutal Death Metal album, I'm normally not in much of a laughing mood. I mean, he sounds like a pig with a sore throat that's having something terrible done to its lower half. Probably a slightly picky point but there you go.

On the plus side, the guitar work is interesting and consistently absorbing the whole way through, with a special nod to the superb title track, and the drums bang and crash at breakneck speed to a sufficiently pleasing level, "Smashed Down With Iron" and "The Lament Configuration", being relatively tasty examples of this.

All in all it's a pretty good album, these guys are veterans of the scene, and they know exactly what t it's all about; speed, intensity and brutality being the key watchwords. It just feels like there's nothing more to it than those three things though, the odd bridge or solo go down nicely but as an album I can't shake this feeling of limitation, I've no idea where it comes from, this isn't a bad album, but I can't bring myself to fully engross myself in it.