Gothic Doom Rock Meets Grisly Absurdity: Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh Album Review!
Visceral Evisceration Review:
The ‘90s were an absolutely deadly time for metal. It was the good old days of endless underground zines and self-published magazines galore. A great time to be into underground death/grind/doom etcetera. If you wanted material, you had to write the bands a letter and send via snail mail or get your hands on any available publications to gain access to mail order catalogues.
It was in a small European zine (the name escapes me) that I witnessed the cover art in an ad for the album Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh from the band Visceral Evisceration. I knew nothing of the band except this first-time visual interaction and I was fascinated.
The cover has an industrial meatgrinder churning a body into a bloody pile of meat spaghetti. The cherry on top is the feet sticking out of the top of the grinder still wearing high heel shoes. This obviously indicated the victim was female. Death metal was obviously seen by some as misogynistic and it seemed to relish in portraying women as victims (you need to only check out the early catalogue from Cannibal Corpse to confirm this notion). If you also notice on the cover is what looks like a small slow cooker pot on a nearby table.
The surprise is Visceral Evisceration were not a typical death metal or goregrind band at all. They borrow more familiarity music wise to Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, or early Anathema. Visceral Evisceration are a gothic sounding doom rock group hailing from Austria with mid-paced chugging songs which even feature beautiful female operatic-style vocals. Filled with memorable melodic riffs and toe tapping rhythms this release is very unique and equally bizarre.
The song titles and lyrics are something straight out of a goregrind bands textbook ala Dead Infection more so than something Dark Tranquillity would churn out. Song titles such as Chewing Female Genital Parts or At the Epicurean Gynaecologist. I also had a chuckle at some of the absurd lyrics such as “Smell of cooked simmered flesh. Serving her for dessert garnished with bacon.” Or “Genital dinner with knife and fork, ketchup on the severed scortums. Salacious scrunch his well-proportioned cock.” The lyrics and spelling are worth a read alone on this release. This is some entertaining and ludicrous shit.
To top it all off Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh has a beautiful sounding female operatic singing parts, as mentioned previously, of these ridiculously vile lyrics. Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh is a solid tongue in cheek doom rock release. It’s memorable, catchy, and will have you coming back for repeated listens with its well orchestrated melodies which are incessant on trudging through otherwise gory territory.
Album Info:
Band: Visceral Evisceration
Album: Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh
Members: Hannes Wuggenig (guitar, vocals), Jürgen Hajek (guitar), Dominik Lirsch (bass), Stephan Sternad (drums)
Year: 1994
Country: Austria
Runtime: 54min 38sec
Label: Napalm Records
Track Listing:
01. (I Am) Enamoured of Dead Bodies
02. At the Epicurean Gynaecologist
03. Muse Perverse
04. Knee Deep in Blood I Wade
05. Chewing Female Genital Parts
06. Tender Flesh… on the Bier
07. Gangling Menstrual Blood-Broth for Supper
