Genre: Death Metal | Label: Unspeakable Axe
Location: Winnipeg, MB| Listen: Bandcamp
Regurgitated Guts is yet another band featuring Dan Ryckman (of Archagathus and many more), this being one of his newer death metal projects. Prior to this, Dan and the two guitarists played in Sabbatory, a death/thrash band from Winnipeg that put out an incredible album in the vein of Morgoth/Pestilence. With Sabbatory seeming to die off, the death metal itch didn’t, and such Regurgitated Guts were completed with the inclusion of Joe Warkentin on bass, who collaborates with Ryckman on a regular basis. So far, they’ve only put out a single 7″, and the strength of the four songs contained on the “Esophageal Mutilation” EP shows a band that can create some truly excellent death metal.
Instead of the death/thrash direction of Sabbatory, Regurgitated Guts play death metal that’s very influenced by Finnish death metal. Traces of Convulse, Amorphis, Demigod, and many others can be found throughout the EP, especially in the vocals and the style of melody employed in both the guitar riffs and leads. The riffs have a lot of twisting finger patterns and tremolo picking, and are fairly nuanced. They have plenty to chew on, and they offer a variety of feels throughout the songs. The opening track, “Vermin Feast” offers a nice Finnish-Autopsy mashup as an intro, before getting into straight death metal. The title track has a stomping midsection that’s absolutely infectious, and concludes with some insane blastbeats. As one would expect, Ryckman’s vocals are incredibly sick on this recording, and he executes low death metal vocals in line with the Finnish influence. “Coffin Birth” especially has some character in this department, and that song also has a killer d-beat feel to it. Quite honestly, these songs sound like more detailed or elaborated Archagathus songs with that added Finnish melody, and I mean that in the best possible way.
Furthering the feel of old Finnish death metal, the recording is somewhat raw. If I’m not mistaken, the drums were recorded with minimal mics optimized in a position to get the best clarity. They actually sound really nice and natural, and still manage to be alive against the downtuned guitar and bass, which also sound purposely raw yet competently audible. The two sides must’ve been recorded in two different sessions, as the guitars sound slightly better on the B side. I think it’s perfectly fitting for this style of death metal, further showing the band knows exactly what they want.
There are a lot of great bands coming out of Winnipeg, and Regurgitated Guts has potential to be one of the premiere death metal bands in Canada. They need to get a full length out, as the 10 minutes of material presented here have left a strong impression. There’s zero bullshit in these 10 minutes, just proper Finnish influenced death metal.
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