Swedish Death Metal sickos Repuked are back to sully our ears once again with their latest audio abomination. Club Squirting Blood follows faithfully in the path carved out by their three previous studio full-length offerings: 2011’s Pervertopia, Up From The Sewers in 2013 and the predecessor to this offering from 2020 Dawn Of Reintoxication.
Repuked – Club Squirting Blood (Soulseller Records)
Release Date: 22 November 2024
Words: Jools Green
Club Squirting Blood delivers eleven tracks, spanning a delightfully fetid and sleazy thirty-four minutes that will have you laughing and headbanging in equal measures.
The track titles and lyrics might be hilariously tasteless but they also made me want to listen to this album. I love a bit of humour, especially sick humour, in my Death Metal. Add to that the fact that musically, this is also a superb offering.
It holds your attention. It is brutally punchy and well composed and delivered with a great range of vocals and descriptive vocal noises, contributed to by three of the four Repuked members.
The eerie squeals that open Stiff Dick In A Stiff are not unlike an ominously unnerving moment from a horror film. It then swiftly slides into a brutal assault of rampaging riffs, drum battery and raw vocal barks. Midway, it ebbs away to tortuous vocal screams and other vile vocal protractions to a slower, filthy but reflective pace where haunting leadwork emerges amidst the eerie repeat and vocal protractions before resuming that earlier rampage.
The next two offerings are the album singles, released in October and early November. Firstly, Parasitic Flesh, a superb piece that opens on a sinister, crawling, suspenseful repeat before suddenly switching to a hugely addictive one. This is a punchy snarler of a track with squealy leadwork and pummelling drum rhythms dropping back to that former suspenseful repeat towards the close. This is followed by Dark Purge Fluid, a full-throttle rampage for the ears, with startlingly good direction shifts and catchy bursts of riffing.
A slow heavy repeat, ground-shaking growls and haunting lead work open Dead Existence For Humiliation. Vocally, it is a brilliant piece. The protraction on the deeper growls is hugely impressive and adds a dramatic edge. It is a track that becomes more deranged and bonkers as it progresses, culminating in a frantic burst of thrashy leadwork. An insanely good Repuked track.
Next, Crotch Rot brings the tempo back up. A catchy, engaging number, but I am quite glad the lyrics are delivered in an indecipherable manner, as I am not altogether sure I want to know the full gory details. However, you are treated to yet another great burst of leadwork towards the close after a brief plummet in pace.
The Slobbering is a spiralling pounding assault on the senses, but it also has a filthy groovy repeat that makes it hugely engaging. The vocals are superbly expressive, too, and every direction and pace switch is both dynamic and brutal.
Rebel Of Vomit is once again a sensory pounder as you are smothered by rapid delivery vocals, an unrelenting drum battery and waves of filthy riffing. The midpoint pace plummets are sinister, the vocals deranged, and it maintains this crushing and filthy feel throughout.
Opening the title track Club Squirting Blood is “guest conferenziere” Steve ‘Dr. Heathen Scum’ Broy of The Mentors, announcing “Welcome in, welcome fucking nude, let’s feast!”
The spiralling riffs and drum battery run alongside ground shaking and hugely expressive protracted growls as well as squealing bursts of leadwork. Combined, this makes it such an attention-grabbing piece.
The short, sharp shock that is Loose Limbs continues the sensory assault with wave after wave of spiralling riffs and a second-half burst of lead work that just seems to plummet into and out of existence. The vocal range is great, too, with an abundance of higher acidic screams accompanying those lower, deeper, protracted vocals.
The title, Into The Anal Abyss, raised another childish giggle from me. Musically, it is superbly sinister, crawling in an almost doomlike manner throughout. With a slightly psychedelic element in places, the vocals build in deranged layers of screams and other vocalisations, adding a huge amount of atmosphere to the track. The fade-out of repeating riffs is unnervingly good.
The final Repuked offering, Stench Inhaler, ramps the pace up for one final driving assault. Riff-wise, it is fairly straightforward, sinister and spiralling but very effective, allowing the vocals, which are, as always, hugely expressive, to take centre stage. The squealing leadwork adds subtle complexity throughout the second half.
Repuked – Club Squirting Blood – was mixed by Nico Elgstrand (Entombed AD, Murder Squad etc.). The artwork, which fully explains the album title, was created by Necromaniac, artist and vocalist, guitarist from Brazilian Black/Death/Thrashers Apokalyptic Raids.
There is just so much to love about this Repuked album. Definitely essential listening for fans of bands like Autopsy or pretty much anything by Chris Reifert.
