3.4.19 by Ryan Masteller

What do you get when a bunch of patch cable tanglers and knob twiddlers decide to play in the death metal sandbox? Death Treat’s “Greatest Shits” compilation, of course! This unholy roster was cobbled together from the remains of a midnight Black Mass, its assorted lineup featuring luminaries like Black Fungus, Venereal Equinox, and Krummholz … which are actually pseudonyms (duh) of a bunch of Field Hymns–adjacent nerds. So basically not born of a Black Mass, but maybe a D&D session gone horribly awry.

How do I know this? Yves Malone told everybody. I mean, uh, CARNIWHORE told everybody. I’m just reporting here.

The result is chaotic fun – chaotic because the metal genre, for those of you in your “safe zone” of harsh noise, tends to stampede without control, or at least with the appearance of not being in control while being so completely in control that it’s terrifying and mesmerizing all at once. Fun because there’s synthesizers in here, adding delightful texture to the high-BPM onslaught. You can’t fool me, you Death Treaters, I can hear ’em! These cats play the game well, never for a second suggesting that they’re play-acting here – everybody honestly loves their metal, and they can make it with the best of them. Whether it’s the overwhelming black blast of Otum Rectepulent’s “Mind Lice Waddle Towards Their Christian Host” (which also wins the award for best song title of the year) or the thick smear of Xenoxoth’s “FUCK BURZUM” (like, for real), “Greatest Shits” propulses until it hyperventilates and caves in upon itself, probably at the point Carniwhore takes up ten minutes of your time with the most demonic samplefest (I’m assuming – Yves surely cannot play drums that fast for that long), the unfortunately titled “The Corporations Have Honed Your Mouth Anus” (“unfortunately” because of the proximity of the terms “Mouth” and “Anus”).

Nothing matters except that everybody on this comp is having the time of their lives. Clearly. I would be too if I didn’t have this balky shoulder following that rotator cuff cleanout.

“Greatest Shits” comes in a “combo pack” housed in a ziplock baggie (like the ones you get your drugs in), with a “vinyl sticker, download code, and 10-page zine/catalog.”