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Well, this turned out to be much more fun than I expected. You see "Avulsed", you think "gore", therefore you think "puke vocals and hyperblasting muddy Death Metal." Well, not so much of that on Nullo (The Pleasure of Self-Mutilation). This is gore alright – just look at the track listing – but rather than the unrelenting borefest that I usually expect from such bands, this here is some top-notch Death Metal – razor-sharp riffage, fast and heavy as fuck, enough solos to pick up the air guitar, thunderous drumming and surprisingly a good level of catchiness (I don't find most Death Metal catchy.) Some of this stuff really gets stuck in your head – you won't see me humming Death Metal songs all that often. Pair that with a good production that makes this crazefest actually audible. Most of the album is played at rather high speeds, but there are some more mid-paced passages that bring with them a bit of dark, thrilling atmosphere – this is even flirting with Thrash here and there – fast and heavy Thrash, of course. A few melodies even take over the show at times.

The Ibex Moon release for North America has some covers added to the track listing – you'll recognize Exodus' "Piranha", while "I Wanna Be Somebody" is much farther from the original (no surprise there.) I didn't look at the track listing at first and a few seconds into the song I went "oh, they didn't…?!" and, yep, they did. Not exactly a good match for the genre, but interesting. I never heard the Gorefest song before, so no comments on that one.

I'm not familiar with the band's previous albums, but I can say that this one is pretty damn good Death Metal. The gore stuff may be a turn off to some, but then again, it's not like you can understand most of what the guy is growling about anyway. All in all, a good surprise.