I love it, when an album grows in front of me the more I listen to it. The Last Suppuration by Indiana death mongers Protrusion is slowly growing into one of my favorite death metal releases in the past years. Rotten throughout with filthy OSDM, the record delivers immense fun and diversity. Immediately, one would say it is another Demilich clone, and maybe that is correct but definitely not in a cheap, knock-off way. Usually, when such comparison pops up, it just means that the vocals are somewhat similar. The Last Suppuration delivers a less technical and more straightforward type of death metal. This doesn’t mean it lacks any finesse.
There melodic solos intertwine with catchy mid-tempo riffs, harking back to 90s old-school death metal. And since I already mentioned Demilich, I think that Protrusion really sound more like Adramelech‘s Psychostasia than anything else. There is pronounced bass work here, delivering the much-needed punch to the already exquisite sound. It never distracts, nor does it fight for space with the rest of the band. It just punches from the corner of the room right into your ear canals. The band operates with a reasonable “riffs to solos” ratio. Reasonable for me, that is, as I am a sucker for a good guitar solo and this caters to my needs. “Accursed Skin” has one of the best guitar solos of this year on any death metal album. This trend continues throughout the whole album, the solos are there as solid foundations of the tracks, never an afterthought to just fill the space. They are all somewhat uniform, but that is what you can expect from this kind of sound, which operates in the tightly defined borders of throwback 90s OSDM.
Vocally, there is not much variation, but whatever main vocalist Colin Foster is doing is great. His deep, gurgling growls lie perfectly on top of the mix, providing an extra grimy layer to the already sick foundation. The Last Suppuration comes preloaded with an atmosphere of disgust and mystery. Sometimes there are faint synths at the very back helping out to achieve this. The main mass of the album, however, centers around cleverly written riffs and nonstop groovy rhythms. I dedicated a good chunk of this review to solos, bass, and comparisons, but the truth is – the main sound of The Last Suppuration is great on its own as well. It is catchy and fast when it needs to be, and doomy-gloomy when the song calls for darker environment. I don’t like to predict the future, but I am pretty confident that The Last Suppuration will end up on my end-year’s list. Despite its 51 minutes run time, it didn’t bore me once, and with each listen there are new soundscapes to be explored. Protrusion managed to record a filthy, yet clever album – one I am sure will become a classic in my personal rotation.
