Metal Life album review – Repulsive Vision – Look Past the Gore and See The Art

Repulsive Vision’s “Look Past the Gore and See the Art” begins in panic: the first track is a fever-dream maelstrom of slasher-film samples, urgently warning against the rampant dangers of metal music that encourage “sex abuse, sadism, cannibalism, necrophilia, infanticide, mutilation, molestation, and death.”  What follows is an assault of sound that gives the finger to censorship, whether self-or-societally imposed.

Bowel-shaking vocalizations that span the gambit of groans, moans, snarls, and howls partner with hard-hitting yet symphonic string progressions and machine-fire drums to drive home a necessary message: there’s a lot to be gained by using a higher perception, seeing past the surface and appreciating the substance. One must cross this threshold, and see with more than eyes, to reap the value of these sounds.

Punkishly-short songs, succinct in their brevity and gruesome in content, add up to an impressively impassioned plea to defy the authority that pressures us to think certain topics are taboo.  A couple of the songs don’t even hit one minute, and only a few approach four. Such vehement, rapid-fire sound and provoking lyrics don’t require convoluted productions of madness.

“Noxious,” for example, sends a sepulchral punch to the gut by describing the impossibility of escaping a mass genocide by poison gas – an act of terror certainly perpetrated by those of inflexible thinking, those “judging without tolerance.”  Some might call such work a morbid exercise in horror – but these things happen, seemingly everyday, if you pay attention, and the message here is that dark art such as this acts as a mirror to hold up to our own actions.

Here is the official video for “Fragmentary” which was the first video released for “Look Past the Gore and See The Art”:

I learned several new vocabulary words from this album – “hypoxia,” “saprotrophic,” “nematocyst,” and especially badass is the title of the thirteenth, final, track: “Credophilic.”  It pertains to taking pleasure in a belief for its own glamorous sake, a pleasure made stronger because doubting said belief causes pain.

Through seriously hell-raising sound, this album pleas for humanity to stop being sheep, leaning on “catatonically umbilic” thinking, to avoid a descent into REAL evil.

‘Look Past the Gore and See The Art’ tracklist

1. Intrepulsion
2. Repulsive Vision
3. Premature Burial
4. Nematocyst
5. Half Starved Half Killed
6. Fragmentary
7. Harmless Entertainment?
8. Corpse Decay
9. Bathroom Surgery
10. Noxious
11. Pit of Putridity
12. Each To their Own
13. Credophilic

[Editor’s Note: The band issued the following statement about the physical CD release:

“We are beyond gutted to have to announce that, due to a massive error at the printing plant, the CD copies of the album will be delayed (unsure how long for but we will keep you posted).”

… stay tuned to their Facebook Page for updates.]

Formed in late 2010 by main songwriter, Matt Davidson, the band are heavily inspired by extreme metal pioneers such as Obituary, Death, Carcass and Napalm Death, affecting a relentlessly aggressive sound that is prominent in this subgenre. Despite several lineup changes, Repulsive Vision has evolved gradually, maintaining a strong current lineup consisting of Dan McEwan (Vocals), Mark Kirby (Bass), Gary Young (Drums) and Matt Davidson (Guitars), proficiently improving both stage presence and musicianship while striving to create worthy material. Over the past few years, the band have performed all over the country with a number of high profile underground acts such as Discharge, Hecate Enthroned, Desecration, Destroyer 666, Benediction, etc as well as joining countless other rising bands in many of the country’s major cities (with aspirations to tour further afield in the near future). The band have recently signed to German extreme metal label, Bret Hard Records.

https://www.facebook.com/RepulsiveVision/