200 Stab Wounds – Manual Manic Procedures (Review)

200 Stab Wounds - Manual Manic ProceduresThis is the second album from US death metallers 200 Stab Wounds.

With a name like 200 Stab Wounds, you know this is going to be brutal, and if you weren’t sure, then the album cover would surely confirm it. Manual Manic Procedures contains 29 minutes of bloodthirsty cruelty, and if you’re a death metal fan then it’s an easy album to enjoy getting punched around by.

200 Stab Wounds play brutal old-school death metal with a hardcore edge and thrash sensibilities. The death metal supplies the brutality, the hardcore the energy, and the thrash the songwriting smarts. It’s a heady combination.

Manual Manic Procedure may be brutal and gory, but it’s not without skill or thought. The songs will crush you to the ground and play with your blood, but amidst the carnage you’ll also find, (if you survive), elements of cutting melody, gruesome dynamics, macabre atmosphere, and structured punishment regimes. In other words, 200 Stab Wounds know how to write a song, not just a collection of riffs, blasts, and gurgles.

The songs exemplify the band’s approach well. The base of the music is primitive, caveman-smash death metal, but built on top of this is a more intelligent expression of brutality, at least in places; melodic accents, a nuanced riff, an engaging hook, etc. At other times though it’s all about ferociously barbaric savagery. Throw in a few Slayer-esque leads and a Merauder-style hardcore heaviness, and you have a record that’s devastatingly good fun. Whatever 200 Stab Wounds do on Manual Manic Procedures, I find it works for me. From the bouncing riffs to the horror film atmospherics, it all lands well.

A thoroughly enjoyable slab of death metal mayhem. Very highly recommended for fans of bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Celestial Sanctuary, Dying Fetus, Enforced, Fuming Mouth, Gatecreeper, Genocide Pact, High Command, Necrot, Outer Heaven, Power Trip, Sanguisugabogg, Terminal Nation, Tribal Gaze, Undeath, Vomit Forth, Xibalba, etc. Hmm, that would make an excellent playlist…