It’s officially October, better known as “Spooky Season” or “Spooktober” in Casa Goat. As a time that inspires many a metalhead to simply be themselves out in the open — the darker side of human imagery, skulls, witches, demons, erections, having a welcome place in the open —we here at The Goat Review embrace both the spooky in sound and in picture. Today, our own Scuttlegoat steps forward to recommend you an album from the gore-kissed side, Carnivorous Erection, and a film from the spewing side, Braindead. Partake in one or both or neither, just make sure it doesn’t last more than four hours…
Regurgitate – Carnivorous Erection (2000, Relapse Records, Goregrind)
Regurgitate might be a beginner’s goregrind band, as a lot of what they do could just be classified as death metal were it not for the pitch-shifted toilet gurgles and short song lengths. But make no mistake, there is a punk spirit to Regurgitate‘s sound, a certain stupidity coupled with a “don’t give a fuck” attitude that rattles through these thirty-six minutes of brutal blasting. Yes Carnivorous Erection lasts thirty-six minutes, an admittedly colossal runtime for a goregrind album [editor’s note: but nothing to go to the doctor over…], but Regurgitate make it work with a sense of humor and surprising songwriting variety. Some riffs outright sound like punk rock (“Savage Gorewhore”), others hit the mark of a slow, sludge-y section (“Fecal Freak”), and even still off-kilter slamming (“37 Stabwounds”) or punctuated gallop (“Swallow the Human Filth”) finds a way in — Regurgitate do it all. So it’s really simple the reason that Regurgitate make good music: they keep their playing tight and their production extremes to a minimum, making Carnivorous Erection a surprisingly upright listen. Regurgitate are aware of the absurdity of the goregind sound, attacking it with a sense of humor, just ever so slightly tongue cheek.
But what would a goregrind listen be without an accompanying film? Pair your Carnivorous Erection with…
Braindead (1992, dir. Peter Jackson)
Similarly to how Regurgitate explore the extremes of gore and violence with a sense of humor and detached irony, Peter Jackson‘s early work has always been a source of delight for the gore flick aficionado — he had a career long before the Lord of the Rings film franchise took hold. Braindead quickly abandons the original setup of a 50s B-horror parody for a series of increasingly absurd gross-out gags, involving the consumption of decaying bodily fluids, a fight involving a Karateka priest in a graveyard, and the famous conclusion involving a lawnmower and 1500 liters of fake blood. Braindead is the ideal poster child for the subgenre sometimes called “Splatstick”, highlighting the physical comedy and absurdity of extreme splatter and gore in a filmic context. Braindead isn’t trying to scare anyone, instead supplying sickos with a knack for violence and absurdity with something to laugh at — ironically meaning that, potentially, we have a beginners gore flick with this movie. An ideal pairing!
