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Another heavy blow signed by the German cult label specialized in extreme metal, following the repress of Tears of Decay's debut MCD "Redemption".

I gotta admit when I looked at the cover, similar to Napalm Death's "Scum", I thought I'd've dealt with a band devoted to the UK death/grinders, while when listening to their music I soon understood their main references are Deeds of Flesh along with Dying Fetus and some Severe Torture-like vocals. How fucken wonderful!
Only lyrically there's something in common with N.D., for example in the social "Soul Suicide", "Der Übermensch" and the title track, but let me stress out "Homo Homini Deus Est Pt. 2"" and "Blind Reality" intelligent texts, as well.

After a 'spatial' intro the first things that one notices in the opening "Blind Reality" are Dirk's drums precision and fastness, whereas "Tears of Decay" signalizes itself through a sort of jazzy intermezzo, consisting in a slapped bass-line just in the middle of a whole guttural brutal death/grind song, and, word, they've guessed the right moment and way! More controlled parts we have in "Bellum Omnium contra Omnes", without ever showing strain decreases, also with the help of an excellent production at Frank Conrads's Audio Check Studio, mixing by Harmony Dies's Kai Mertens, and hardkicking without-pauses-between-one-song-and-another mastering by the busier and busier emerging Peter Neuber at Mega Wimp Studio in Berlin (Severe Torture, Lividity, Damnable, Thornspawn and tens more).

Dying Fetus's halo haunts "Soul Suicide" and the title-track again, thou their influence is never too plain. And then we get to my fave extra-brutal composition, "Kill, Fuck, Die" (might it've been different with such a title?), followed by a spatial outro hiding the funny and violent episode - just a bit longer than a minute - "Schuppenficker".

As the CD lasts 33 minutes only, the generous and smart guys from the bludgeoning Teutonic label thought well to offer us a couple of CD-Rom live songs more in the very first copies, of which the first is the excellent title-track.

Although I'd recommend Tears of Decay to exploit the potentialities granted by having 2 guitar players in the line-up, no-one can deny "Saprophyt" definitely enthrones the 5-piece from Emden as one of the very first bands of the new breed of German brutal death metal.

MARKUS GANZHERRLICH - 21/08/02

	Tears of Decay Saprophyt (Cudgel Agency) MARK: 80/100



	Another heavy blow signed by the German cult label specialized in extreme metal, following the repress of Tears of Decay's debut MCD "Redemption". I gotta admit when I looked at the cover, similar to Napalm Death's "Scum", I thought I'd've dealt with a band devoted to the UK death/grinders, while when listening to their music I soon understood their main references are Deeds of Flesh along with Dying Fetus and some Severe Torture-like vocals. How fucken wonderful! Only lyrically there's something in common with N.D., for example in the social "Soul Suicide", "Der Übermensch" and the title track, but let me stress out "Homo Homini Deus Est Pt. 2"" and "Blind Reality" intelligent texts, as well. After a 'spatial' intro the first things that one notices in the opening "Blind Reality" are Dirk's drums precision and fastness, whereas "Tears of Decay" signalizes itself through a sort of jazzy intermezzo, consisting in a slapped bass-line just in the middle of a whole guttural brutal death/grind song, and, word, they've guessed the right moment and way! More controlled parts we have in "Bellum Omnium contra Omnes", without ever showing strain decreases, also with the help of an excellent production at Frank Conrads's Audio Check Studio, mixing by Harmony Dies's Kai Mertens, and hardkicking without-pauses-between-one-song-and-another mastering by the busier and busier emerging Peter Neuber at Mega Wimp Studio in Berlin (Severe Torture, Lividity, Damnable, Thornspawn and tens more). Dying Fetus's halo haunts "Soul Suicide" and the title-track again, thou their influence is never too plain. And then we get to my fave extra-brutal composition, "Kill, Fuck, Die" (might it've been different with such a title?), followed by a spatial outro hiding the funny and violent episode - just a bit longer than a minute - "Schuppenficker". As the CD lasts 33 minutes only, the generous and smart guys from the bludgeoning Teutonic label thought well to offer us a couple of CD-Rom live songs more in the very first copies, of which the first is the excellent title-track. Although I'd recommend Tears of Decay to exploit the potentialities granted by having 2 guitar players in the line-up, no-one can deny "Saprophyt" definitely enthrones the 5-piece from Emden as one of the very first bands of the new breed of German brutal death metal. MARKUS GANZHERRLICH - 21/08/02