Some albums just let you know upfront what they are. Hemorrhoid’s Raw Materials of Decay is such a case of a band being unpretentiously aware of who they are and who their audience is. With an album cover consisting of somewhat medically accurate gore and a band pic taken on a venue toilet, we know that Hemorrhoid have no aspirations to do anything high brow or distinguished: Hemorrhoid play goregrind. Goregrind can be tough to review, as often, the genre is not made with the intent to deliver quality. Goregrind is mostly made ironically, or as an exercise in not having to appeal to society’s expectations. From experience, this exercise is often more rewarding for the musician than it is for the listener. Hemorrhoid take their craft somewhat seriously, however, which makes me inclined to give them an honest review.
The inspiration for Raw Materials of Decay is the most straightforward one that exists for this genre: a lot of the material sounds like early Carcass and certainly leans on the death metal side of the equation. This goes so far that the band, unlike their prime inspiration, opts to only rarely use the trademark pitch shifted vocals that makes the average listener turn off goregrind immediately. Upbeat and uptempo riffs are favored, but the band do occasionally go into something more groove oriented, even at times going into the polka-type drumbeat that has become somewhat prevalent in hardcore infused caveman death metal. The album avoids the pitfall of leaning too far into any style and manages to somewhat justify its runtime, even though I am kind of over it by the end. This is likely due to the very crunchy guitar tone that recalls both the cheap production of early Carcass and Swedish goregrind acts like Regurgitation. With a guitar tone so aggressive, the upfront and loud production does not do it any favors, making the experience more exhausting than it has to be.
The band’s honest and non-ironic approach to goregrind might be a strength, but it is also the album’s downfall. For a goregrind album, a genre built on absurdity and silliness, Raw Materials of Decay is too measured, too tame. I crave the moments when the album goes full simple jack and ironically, what made it slightly more marketable is what I desire when I listen to goregrind. Hemorrhoid are not untalented and I believe they have an album in them that is much better but for this, they need to let loose and embrace the stupid.
