Retching – Charming the Decomposed (Review)

This is the debut album from US death metal band Retching.

What is this rotten bag of offal that has been unceremoniously stuffed through my letterbox? Oh, there’s a note, written in something quite unwholesome that I’d rather not look too closely at. It says – Retching. Then, beneath – Charming the Decomposed. Sounds nasty. Okay, I’d better hold my gag reflex and examine this pile of filth before it gets even more disgusting and I never get the stains out.

After some experimentation revolving around which part of the foulness to prod and probe to get it to emit noises, Charming the Decomposed growls, screams, and vomits hideous death metal brutality for 32 minutes. It’s not nice, but it is worth the mess it leaves behind.

Broken down into eight separate outbursts, Retching’s unrelenting noise is old-school and gory. Despite the copious amounts of blood and other fluids that seep from every diseased pore, there’s method to this madness, and each of the eight utterances have a putrid shape and structure to them that makes me want to pay attention. The sound of Retching is horrific, and the place stinks because of it, but I want more.

Hidden amidst this heaving ball of decaying matter are rusty hooks, left behind by the flesh-shapers of this monstrosity, designed to ensnare the unwary. Once snagged, I’m done for, as Charming the Decomposed won’t let me go. That’s fine though, as I don’t really want it to. The closer I look at the pulsating mass of spoiled meat before me, the more I become convinced I can read fell designs in its awful surfaces, as if something deeper lurks beneath.

So, here I now lie, face stuffed deep into the gore. There’s no escape, only a primal need to devour Charming the Decomposed to fully appreciate its abhorrent, revolting, ungodly splendour. With my final breaths, I manage to write the following in excrement across the floor, in the hope that it will act as breadcrumbs, leading others who find my corpse to this repulsive feast of decaying heaviness…Broken Hope, Cannibal Corpse, Devourment, Fulci, Hyperdontia, Jungle Rot, Necrot, Sanguisugabogg, Tomb Mold, Undeath…