Album Review: Surgery - Descent / Pulled by the Rope (2020, Re-Issue)

It begins with violent intro that could be from "A Clockwork Orange". Classical music, screams, yelling and moaning. And then the brutality kicks in. Surgery from Poprad, Slovakia have recently dropped an amazing double re-release. The thirteen-track album contains their 2012 album "Descent", their 2010 EP "Pulled by the Rope" and a very special bonus track to which we will come back later.

"Descent / Pulled by the Rope" is available via Czech label Support Underground as a shiny digipack CD. The music on the two re-issues throws us back into a time when Death Metal was raw, brutal and straightly hammering through your eardrums. No gimmicks, no high-pitch leads, no bullshit. Just honest, brachial, mincing and heavily rolling Old School Death Metal.

As Surgery have gone through some changes in their line-up in the last years, the band has now reformed. In their new formation they are heavily working on spreading the word of Death Metal via concerts and promotion for their new music. But as you should not forget about your history, the double re-issue is the perfect way to reintroduce Surgery's cornerstones amongst the Death Metal community.

Surgery convince the audience by their brachial riffing connected to a machine gun fire of drums. Versatility in tempo and motifs make the two releases diverting and entertaining. Like a vulgar tamer the massively deep growls keep the sound together and create a beautiful picture of gore, brutality and death.

Both re-issues, stomp, speed, mince, thrash and hammer through the speakers for around 43 minutes. The high quality adds to the morbidly beautiful experience. The earlier work "Pulled by the Rope" is a little more minimalistic in rhythm, but still far from boring or too simple. Still, the music is coined by bloodthirsty lyrics uttered on a morbid display of horror, gore, destruction and other beautiful things.

Once the double feature of gore aesthetics is over and the listeners look for the repeat button, the bonus track commences. As an hommage to one of the greatest and most influential sophisticated Death Metal bands of all time, Surgery reward the listeners with a cover version of Death's 'Pull the Plug'.
As Surgery's music somehow reminds of Debauchery or Pungent Stench a little, the cover version sounds surprisingly different and unexpectedly hoarse. Surgery's idiosyncratic version of 'Pull the Plug' is a great closing for the album. And yes, the repeat button is still pushed. Now more than before.

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