I always find it a little strange when a band that released material in the 90s suddenly reappears, with all members intact, in fact. What we have here is a collection of 18 tracks that have been remastered ahead of the band's first full-length release later this year. Just for good measure we even get some tracks twice, how nice of them.

Kicking the angst meter up to 11 straight off is the meat and potatoes "Purulent Cold", whilst clearly hailing back to the forefathers of the genre it is in no way a track to write off. With hypnotic blast beats and a guitar tone so meaty a vegetarian wouldn't touch it, it is pure grindcore goodness. Even the demo version appearing towards the end of this compilation manages to escape past its bare bones production to kick you square in the face.

The pure aural assault is difficult to get away from here. "Symptom" manages to crawl inside your spin in under 40 seconds and is infectious from there forward. "Mortuary Garlands" is the most technical track, showing that not all grindcore drummers are limited to blast beats and half time feels. The bass tone is monolithic and neck snapping tight, a rare occurrence from a band within this genre.

Now I can't hide the elephant in the room any longer. The vocals. I came into this expecting the usual venom soaked vocals that ruled the British scene. What I wasn't expecting were vocals that sound pained and brutish. Whilst this may well take some out of the music, it a strange way it appears to fit. Overly brutish music with caveman-esque growls and back to basics grunts.

A purely inhumane offering PUTRID OFFAL, are by no mistakes the greatest grindcore band on the planet. But they do offer up some damn good old school music.<