Review: Serial Butcher – Brute Force Lobotomy

Serial Butcher
Brute Force Lobotomy

Unique Leader
Street: 09.18
Serial Butcher = Suffocation + Cannibal Corpse + Morbid Angel

With a name like Serial Butcher and the label they are on currently—Unique Leader—one might fathom that the band is just another over-the-top attempt to be a more-brutal-than-thou band. Well, the Belgium-based quartet squashed that idea, to my delight. Brute Force Lobotomy reeks of classic Florida-style death metal without the overdone Scott Burns production. With galloping riffs at its core, the album pounds away, but it’s the tones and the amazing dynamic that have put this band on my radar. Where many brutal bands bottom out on overly low bottom-end, bass-heavy sound, Serial Butcher keep it straightforward and punchy with an organic, gritty tone. The tone is only interrupted when the soloing breaks out in crystalline, magnificent form. “Nothing new under the sun” is a fitting classification, but it’s all in the execution, and these butchers are also great executioners—prime, grade-A death metal here. –Bryer Wharton