Pungent Stench For God Your Soul … For Me Your Flesh was the first album released in 1990 from a band I really dug as a kid. Like many of the underground bands I didn’t keep up with their later releases but these guys hold a special place and as an adult a few years later even got to share the stage with them.
Pungent Stench (In my opinion) took a little from the band Autopsy but had a more “European” sound to their guitars (Think Early Napalm Death, Entombed etc..) and better production making it a bit easier to listen to. I don’t think the band was doing anything exceptional at this point, but what they were doing they were doing quite well and it set the band up to build a solid following around Europe. The album opens up with a creepy intro and the song “Extreme Deformity” showcasing an already professional sound and a solid and tight recording. The next song “Hypnos” is pretty cool too but its the third song “For God Your Soul … For Me Your Flesh” where we see the first memorable chorus and song that really sticks in your head and starts to show the future potential of this band.
The Vocals on this are thick and gutteral and suit the music perfectly. Production wise this is pretty cool too, the sound is pretty clear for a first album from an underground band, though I’m sure being signed to Nuclear Blast had something to do with this. The sound is also varied with fast bits you’d find on say an entombed album or whatever but also some really cool slower doomy sections which make the band shine out from its competitors at the time.
Later in the album the lads keep it going really well with some great but very catch death metal, with “Just Let Me Rot” and the lovingly titled “Blood Pus and Gastric Juice” providing a lot of variation in a scene where there was a lot of very similar stuff being put out. The songs had some great timing changes and some quite rocking bits that really draw the listener in.
Over all this is a great death metal album, immensley enjoyable but also a little more “Fun” than many of its contemporaries, something I think the band realised early on and expanded on in future releases. Which I’m sure we’ll talk about soon!
For more great Heavy Metal reviews be sure to keep checking back on Metalhed.com on a regular basis!