We have covered Chicago’s death metal veterans a lot here at Teeth of TeethoftheDivine. I mean a lot; 3 interviews, 5 album reviews. I personally haven’t really dug into them since 2011’s Kill on Command, still their best album in my humble opinion, and I have not reviewed them since 2013’s Terror Regime. They released 3 albums since then, including their last effort, 2022’s A Call to Arms. I didn’t hear any of them.
So I thought I’d dig back into Jungle Rot, or as I like to call them, ‘America’s Benediction‘, and see what they were up to, and unsurprisingly, they still sound exactly the same as they did the last time I heard them.
Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Bolt Thrower, Dismember, Deicide, Benediction, Suffocation, etc.– all made careers releasing albums that didn’t move the needle at all, but they were just really good. Certainly, Jungle Rot isn’t in that category, but you have to hand it to them – they are consistent.
Sometimes, you are just in the mood for meat-and-potatoes, war-mongering death metal, and while that term is either overused or a bit of a slight, it fits the 11 songs here perfectly. If you’ve heard any Jungle Rot album from the last two decades, you know exactly what you are getting.
It’s generally mid-paced and groovy (“Manaical”, “Radicalized”, “When the Elders Rise”, “Hollow Husk”- which actually might be one of the best songs they have penned) with a few faster tracks (“Apocalyptic Dawn”, “Suffer in Silence”), Dave Matrice has a decipherable growl, the Dan Swano master is nice and beefy, and overall, there are some chunky, enjoyable riffs here and there.
And you think my Benediction comparison is lazy and or cheap (or both) – Dave Ingram appears on “Horrors Vile”, and check out the riffs for the title track or “Blade of Betrayal”, and tell me those aren’t pure Benediction riffs. I’ll wait. And thats Ok, how many Suffocation, Dismember, and Cannibal Corpse clones are there? There’s a place for it, and if you enjoy it, go for it.
And while I personally sort of enjoyed Cruel Face of War. I can’t say I’ll be coming back to it anytime soon, or rush out to buy the CD. But if I saw it used in a few years, I’d grab it to add to my Jungle Rot collection, and throw it on every so often for some no frills, meat and potatoes death metal, as here, the descriptor is 100 percent spot on.
