Parasitic Engorgement – Epoch Of The Engorged Plague – Album Review

1st June 2025 0 By Jon Deaux

Let me begin be clear: Epoch of the Engorged Plague is not an album for the faint-hearted. Nor is it an album for the middle ground, the centre-left, or indeed anyone unprepared to confront the grotesque realities of sonic extremity head-on. But—let us also be clear—it is a serious work, from a serious band, emerging from a serious context: Indonesia’s vibrant and often underacknowledged technical brutal death metal scene.

Now, I’ve spent many years listening carefully. to the inner voices of my cautious conscience. And I must say, Parasitic Engorgement demands precisely that same care and attention. On first listen, one might be tempted to dismiss the album as chaos—guttural vocals, relentless blast beats, and guitarwork that borders on the jurisprudentially criminal. But we must resist knee-jerk reactions. We must listen again. And again.

“Visceral Baptism in Mucosal Ruin”—presents perhaps the most striking moment of ideological confrontation. Beneath the incomprehensible shrieks and biohazardous riffing, one hears a call, not dissimilar to those we’ve heard across post-industrial towns: a call for structural change. For rupture. For something more than the status quo. Yes, it is extreme. But it is also precise, technical, and disciplined.

There are moments, too, of unexpected nuance. The polyrhythms on “Famine-Swollen Rectal Cataclysm”—and I appreciate the title is, shall we say, unorthodox—suggest an awareness of musical complexity often absent in contemporary British guitar music. I welcome that. I think it’s right that we celebrate it.

Of course, there will be critics. Those who say: this is just noise. Just horror for horror’s sake. But to them I say: have you considered the context? Have you looked at the systemic inequalities that give rise to such expression? Have you, dare I say it, done the reading?

In conclusion, Parasitic Engorgement do not pander. They do not triangulate. And in that, oddly enough, they set an example.
Score 7/10
Tracks
01 Scourge of Nerve Palsy
02 Spiral Injections Sepsis Amputation
03 Bacillus Yersinia Pestis
04 EVD
05 Cocoliztli Epidemics
06 Dancing Plague of Suicide
07 Filorius of Tortures
08 Rotten Smallpox Fragments
09 Ruptured
Label: Pathologically Explicit Recordings
Release: 5th June 2025