Balatonizer - Occlused In Ottusity
2005 This Dark Reign Recordings

Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Muscular Prevarication
3. Corporal Usurpation
4. Cicco Tagliavia
5. Brutal Devastation
6. Caimme
7. Anfame
8. C.E.P.
9. Petra Lavica Etnea
10. Abominations Of Triviality
11. Diabolos
12. Occlubinated Eyes Convergence
13. Scacciatieista
14. Pulverization After Intimidation
15. Inebetit
16. Eaten
17. Cerebral Regression
18. Gutteral Satusfaction
19. Macabrotic Poetry
20. Microscopic Brain
21. From The Obsolation To The Obeteration
22. Putrification Of The Mind
23. A'Cinta No!
24. Sbigottit
25. Primitivity 46
26. Reborn In Ignorance
27. Se So Sa
28. Sucaman
29. Ottenebrated Perseveration Through Mental Disorder
30. Occlused In Ottusity
31. Anal By Anal
32. Tristeza
33. (video) Muscular Prevarication

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Mario Musumeci
Guitars:  Marco Failla
Bass:  Rodan Di Maria
Programming:  Marco Failla

Website:  www.balatonizer.com

Shev's Rating:  A
Average Overall Rating:  A

Shev's Review:
Straight from Italy, this threesome is all about the spreading of love, Christianity, and the magic of unicorns.  Nah, just kidding.  Balatonizer's first full-length, "Occlused In Ottusity", is all about sick, gore-drenched brutal death metal with borderline elements of goregrind.  Actually, imagine Mortician if they could actually, you know, write memorable songs and play their instruments while keeping the same brutal intensity.  Mix that with early Pungent Stench, and the end result would sound a little something like Balatonizer.

As is typical of this style of music, the vocals lean towards the dry, low guttural growls with the occasional mid-tone rasp thrown in for good measure.  Due to the muddy nature of this production, the guitar and bass combine to form a buzzsaw of stringy sound, but with a technical touch among their brutality...but thankfully this is very, very light on the pinch harmonics.  Topping everything off is the drum machine which is actually well programmed and doesn't sound bad even when used at practically inhuman speeds.  It's nice to see some bands with a taste for the brutal use a drum machine as an instrument instead of a pie filler.

Also from this trio of gore-swimming Italians, there are plenty of Italian movie samples to kick off certain songs.  While they are not overused, which is a nice touch to add a little punctuation to a song or two, they do like to dedicate entire tracks to just the samples which can be a little annoying.  Along those same lines, two of their songs have been dedicated to certain people: "Caimme" which is dedicated to Alfredo Li Bassi's character "Carmello" in the Italian film "Mary Forever"; and "Primitivity 46" which is dedicated to the MotoGP racer, Valentino Rossi.  Interesting selection, especially after browsing over the artwork inside the CD booklet which depicts the band getting transformed into hulking man-beasts and slaughtering a city of people.  I would have thought they would dedicate songs to people like Alistair Crowley and David Berkowitz.  Anyway...

Brutal speed is what Balatonizer seem to accomplish best.  They tend to  be paced anywhere from "fast" to "light speed", which is nothing new for this genre, but the rare slower material as witnessed in songs like "Sbigottit" and "Occlused In Ottusity" are a crushing war machine, and hopefully we'll hear more stuff like it in the future as it is absolutely pulverizing.  Also unique for a band of this caliber is their ability to keep songs unique from each other and fresh over repeated listens.  The results are a short album only 25:21 in length (not including their video for "Muscular Prevarication") which can deliver a fierce amount of brutality, technical charm, and stand up to repeated listens.

Other than the video, which must be noted as being a surprisingly well-done and polished sped-up footage of the band playing/goofing around (regardless of the death metal vocals without the use of a mic which always looks goofy), this is a decent bang for your buck.  Not including full tracks containing movie samples, there's not a bad song on it.  Personal favorites include: "Ciccio Tagliavia", "Abomination Of Triviality", "Occlusinated Eyes Convergence", "From The Obsolation To The Obliteration", and "Sbigottit".  A great acquisition for fans of brutal death.
Shev's Rating:  A