Avulsed - Seven Years Of Decay
1999 Quirofano

Track Listing:
1.  Skinless
2.  Addicted To Carrion
3.  Powdered Flesh
4.  Ecstasy For Decayed Chunks
5.  Morgue Defilement
6.  Deformed Beyond Belief
7.  Achieving The Perfect Deformity (Intro)
8.  Addicted To Carrion
9.  Bodily Ransack
10. Gangrened Divine Stigma
11. Malodorous Lethal Gases
12. Infanticide
13. Denial (Intro)
14. Unconscious Pleasure
15. Clandestinely Autopsied
16. Mutilating Process

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Dave Rotten
Guitars:  Luisma, Cabra, Juancar
Bass:  Lucky, Ivan
Drums:  Toni, Furni

Website:  www.avulsed.com

Shev's Rating:  B-
Overall Rating:  B-

Also be sure to read:
Avulsed - Yearning For The Grotesque by Shev

Shev's Review:
Avulsed fans rejoice.  My personal favorite death metal band out of Spain along with Quirofano Productions brings you Seven Years Of Decay.  A collection of rarities found on demo's, CD's, and then some.  Here's a quick rundown:  Skinless was never released, and recorded back in October of 1998; Addicted To Carrion (the first one listed), was recorded back in May of 1996, but it is a rough mix and was never released on the "Eminence In Putrescence" CD; Powdered Flesh and Ecstasy For Decayed Chunks were taken from their "Promo '95"; Morgue Defilement and Deformed Beyond Belief come from the "Dead Flesh Compilation" back in 1993; Achieving The Perfect Deformity, Addicted To Carrion (the second one), Bodily Ransack, Gangrened Divine Stigma, Malodorous Lethal Gases, and Infanticide are from the "Deformed Beyond Belief" demo in April 1993; Denial, Unconscious Pleasure, and Clandestinely Autopsied are from the "Embalmed In Blood" demo recorded back in August 1992; and last but not least, Mutilating Process is a killer live Asphyx cover from their "Live In Perfect Deformity" tape recorded at the Revolver Club in Madrid, Spain on October 4th, 1993.  On top of these gems and diamonds in the rough, you'll also find lyrics, a nice biography, a very well done "biocronology", and a few black and white's.  It's a little hard to read, but what the hell...it compliments some of these songs.

It's no secret that Avulsed are not the most groundbreaking death metal band in existence.  As a matter of fact, they're not even close.  Don't expect to uncover anything more by looking to their past, although this is not to say Seven Years Of Decay is not a good listen.  Dave Rotten has some of the best death metal vocals all around, and he has some good musicianship to back him.  If you liked everything else by these pathological gore hounds, then I'm sure you'll find this to be a good listen.  My biggest problem is the track listing.  Why did they start with their newest material and work backwards?  They start this release with nice and crisp songs, and work backwards until it's just muddy noise, only to end it with one of the best Asphyx covers I've ever heard.  Makes no sense to me, but after I listen to a CD a few times I tend to put it on shuffle anyway.  Like all collections of early stuff, the sound is fairly inconsistent, but for Avulsed fans or fans of brutal death metal in general, this is well worth the money.

Song summaries include...

1.  Skinless - Just jumps right into the song, and starts a little slow and bland. It kicks it up a notch into something a little more memorable and Bolt Thrower-ish.  B
2.  Addicted To Carrion - More bands should use their drums like this, but the guitar work really waters this one down.  B-
3.  Powdered Flesh - Not bad at all, but the vocals are ridiculous.  B
4.  Ecstasy For Decayed Chunks - Reminds me too much of Coffin Texts for some reason mixed with slo-groove.  C-
5.  Morgue Defilement - Wicked dirty and muddy.  The vocals stand out great and it has some great bass sound.  A-
6.  Deformed Beyond Belief - Simple, straight forward, and a killer guitar solo.  A
7.  Achieving The Perfect Deformity (Intro) - Boring little intro.  F
8.  Addicted To Carrion - Is this supposed to be the same great song that was track 2?  This is bland and the vocals are way overcooked.  D+
9.  Bodily Ransack - Cool everything at a good pace.  B+
10. Gangrened Divine Stigma - Painfully average.  C-
11. Malodorous Lethal Gases - Nice how they break things up to make the song easily digestible, but nothing terribly wonderful otherwise.  C
12. Infanticide - Interesting structure and it moves right along.  B-
13. Denial (Intro) - Boring burping intro, but at least it's short.  D
14. Unconscious Pleasure - Way too messy and noisy.  The drums are awful, but it does have a nice ambient sound.  C-
15. Clandestinely Autopsied - More mud.  Sounds like a joke song, but it gets a tad better at the end.  D-
16. Mutilating Process - Surprisingly good for being live and an Asphyx cover, especially the bass which isn't drowned, drowning, or set to "fart".  A
Shev's Rating:  B-

Discography (last updated 9.25.06):
Embalmed In Blood demo - 1992
Deformed Beyond Belief demo - 1993
Live In Perfect Deformity demo - 1993
Split with Acid Death - 1993
Split with Antropomorfia, Fermento, Sacrophobia, and Spontaneous Combustion - 1993
Carnivoracity - 1995
Carnivoracity EP - 1995
Eminence In Putresence - 1996
Cybergore - 1998
Seven Years Of Decay - 1999
Stabwound Orgasm - 1999
Bloodcovered EP - 2001
Yearning For The Grotesque - 2003
Goresplattered Suicide - 2005
Reanimations - 2006