HAEMORRHAGE – opera medica – CD

Spain’s HAEMORRHAGE should require no introduction. Alongside MORTICIAN, there is no other gore-obsessed death metal band who’ve been around longer and been more influential – or, perhaps most importantly, never wimped out for more commercial aspirations. As such, while they’ve undoubtedly drawn influence from the immortal early works of Carcass, it could be argued that HAEMORRHAGE have in many ways bested the original. Or, simply, rarely does goregrind get as disgusting AND catchy as these Spanish legends.

Alas, it’s been eight long years since HAEMORRHAGE released the full-length We are the Gore, and the only brand-new material they’ve released since then was the three-way split with Hemdale and Meat Spreader the following year. Therefore, it is with no small amount of ceremony that Opera Medica arrives, courtesy of longtime fans HELLS HEADBANGERS (who recently reissued on vinyl 1998’s classic Anatomical Inferno). Thankfully, HAEMORRHAGE are as sick and depraved as ever, serving up their characteristic goregrind with utmost catchiness, crushing power, and a charisma otherwise elusive to their contemporaries. Featuring five exclusive songs in 19 swift minutes, Opera Medica sounds exactly as it should – like HAEMORRHAGE, sewer-drenched and slicing / sluicing and yet with a focus that’s (STILL!) frightening to behold – but the uniquely strutting “Nomenclator Pathologicum” surprises with its sleazy groove, and is bound to become one of the band’s new live standards.