I got ‘Boundless Expansion’ by Corpulate about a week ago.  In that time I have listened to it at least 2 times a day and I’ve yet to get sick of it.  It seems these feisty fiends from Cleveland, Ohio have carved a multidimensional album out of their noxious souls encompassing Grindcore, and Death Metal fused with a fervent dosage of asymmetrical time signatures and trippy guitar blurbs.

Hearing ‘Boundless Expansion’ is like a listless come down from acid what with random heart palpitations, talking paintings, and spectral dissonance.  Vocals gurgle and slither in lower gut gesticulation.  What makes them warped to hear is how they seem to be beneath the music, but somehow balanced in the mix.  The drums fluctuate between deranged syncopation and all out militant Death Metal blasts.  Interesting fills amalgamated with excellent footwork give the drumming a nice uniqueness.  The bass seems a little out of the loop but it is present enough to compliment the guitars root notes while providing a fat bottom.  Corpulate has an excellent guitar style and sound.  The fretwork is angular with a trippy teetering riffage that makes me imagine a drunken tightrope walker.  Riffs come out of nowhere like sniper bullets.  Sometimes they rise and in other sections those riffs seem to sputter out before the listener is transported headlong into a demolition derby of strumming intensity.  Yet, what makes the guitar and the rest of the band enjoyable is that despite the music’s technicality, they are fun to hear.

The enjoyment factor with ‘Boundless Expansion’ comes from an unmitigated groove.  This style offsets the technicality in crunchy sometimes sleazy bursts enhanced by random pinch harmonic squeals.  In this way, Corpulate sound like a fat version of Decrepit Birth stuffed into the dingleberry-crusted ass of Last Days of Humanity, but the technicality gives them the feel of Cephalic Carnage.

Corpulate have created a well-balanced debut album between musicianship, groove, a superb booklet with a great album cover, and stellar production.  They are another behemoth bolstering an already strong lineup at Comatose Music, which features such stalwart bands of brOOOtal delight as Lust Of Decay, Aversion To Life, Mutilated, Lividity, and Human Artifacts.  ‘Boundless Expansion’ is an outstanding album with a definite high replay value, which means you all should already be ordering this killer CD.

By Mike Lidia