A Dying Fetus video featuring copious blast beats, tapping, “I ate shredded glass” vocals, and imagery that would entirely be appropriate for a decent horror movie. Is this 2013, 2003, or 1993? It doesn’t matter, Dying Fetus stays the same. While we usually think of change as a good thing, in the case of metal bands it’s generally the kiss of death. When metal bands change it usually means “we’re tired of riding around in a shitty van and sleeping on college kids’ floors. Time to bring in the clean vocals and add some hooks to the songs”. Dying Fetus don’t do that. They stay locked into being the prototypical brutal death metal band that makes horrific shirts that makes everyone in the mall look at you like a mass murder. That is why we love Dying Fetus.

“Second Skin” is off of their last album Reign Supreme; it features a plot that somehow merges a story of a child killer, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic. As usual the song is a collection of cookie monster vocals, assault and battery riffs and drumming that sounds like they recruited the winner of Mortal Combat Whac-A-Mole on drums. Really, nothing has changed since the days of “Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog”, that’s entirely a good thing.

- raythedestroyer