WhoretopsyTake My Breath Away

Melbourne’s finest and most “controversial” (that is, if you had your satire detection removed at birth) death metal exports Whoretopsy at their most malicious and bloodthirsty on their third release Take My Breath Away. 

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Divine Indigestion is total Cannibal Corpse worship, menacing and lumbering like a shit-covered Frankenstein monster out for revenge, gored with squealing pinch leads and ultra-guttural grindcore vocals. If you like that, you’ll love The Bone Collector, veering off into millimetre perfect double kicks and blasts of quick-picked riffs, just like Decapitated perfected only a couple of albums ago. Waltzing Matilda isn’t a cover, but it’s likely the most Aussie death metal song you’ll ever hear (Sorry, Damaged) with a cry of “You bloody legend!” heard over a maelstrom of punishing riffs and dizzying leads.

Riff-heavy and tight as a drum made out of your enemies’ skin, this could very well be their finest half-hour.

Death metal can sound “samey” in the hands of amateurs, but guitar heroics bursting through the chests of Fallout Boy and crowd favourite In Like Flynn will have anyone who isn’t crowd-surfing kicking themselves for not practising their scales enough. If that doesn’t get you rigid in the downstair trouser, tracks take twists and turns that’ll keep you on your toes; It’s Raining Men (still not a cover) spins out of control before storming back with machine-gun blasting rhythms.

Whoretopsy aren’t strict traditionalists, nor are they falling over themselves to modernise death metal beyond all purist recognition. It’s a fine mix of old and new, technical and meat-and-potatoes, gory and cutthroat. Juicy examples in Man’s Best Friend and mammoth closer Take My Breath Away (definitely not a cover) will keep ardent fans hooked like a bloke on the wrong side of Jigsaw; those looking for a gateway drug into extreme styles will stand grind-curious no more. Riff-heavy and tight as a drum made out of your enemies’ skin, this could very well be their finest half-hour.

As for the lyrics: yes, they’re still screaming about murdering people in creative ways. Yes, their name is still Whoretopsy. Don’t like it? Don’t listen. Simple.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Waltzing Matilda, Take My Breath Away, In Like Flynn
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Desecration, Cannibal Corpse, Decapitated