Cerebral Rot play unapologetically old school death metal. Some death metal benefits from a highly polished and clean production, that is not the case here. These guys have opted for a downright nasty presentation of their album and it's an integral part of their sound. Mind you this is not a lofi production like you would hear in black metal, there is still plenty of heaviness to be had... its just muddy, filthy... really any other adjective you can think of to say d i r t y.
So they got the production right, that's a secondary facet to the main component: the riffs. Well that mostly get those right as well. These guys will often tow the line between death and death/doom with many of the riffs focusing on a slower and more overtly heavier delivery than most modern death metal bands do. That's not to say that they are full on doom/death, I think some songs may be - but overall the pace is just a bit too energetic to go full death/doom.
The riffs themselves range from slow drawn out chords with generous uses of pinch harmonics to a blast beat laden chaotic mess... and really anything in between. The riffs (when they are not going through one of their epileptic seizure type moments) tend to have a hypnotic repetition to them. They are very content to pummel the listener with the same hammer time and time again... and that's really what most of these riffs are, a bludgeoning tool to beat the listener into submission.
Cerebral Rot haven't been on my radar for a long time, but I've been needing to really give this album a proper listen. After taking my time within over the course of a few spins here I'm glad I went back to it and didn't sell it.
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