Reduced Capabilities is more than just a Brutal Death Metal Goregrind album. It’s like a journey into the mind of the most vile serial killer that hasn’t been born yet. There’s bowel rattling gurgle vocals from “newer” vocalist David Duran, a drum machine that really takes one for the team, and guitars that buzz like overdriven chainsaws.

I reviewed their disgustingly good split with Nunslaughter here, as well as the split with Lipoma and Trocar (which was basically an incestuous love child, since the members of Fluids are in the other bands in some way or the other.) Anyway, I recommended them with the intensity of Moses and that brings me to Reduced Capabilities.

This is a motherfucker of an album, nothing but skull fucking brutality and it all kicks off with “Poached” a :58 second Mortician loving blast fest, and just to get this out of the way: Fluids worship Mortician and what’s even better is that they own that shit. Reduced Capabilities means that the band has stripped down to the “Marrow” for this album (see what I did there.) There aren’t any samples, it’s just one after another of searing Goregrind deliciousness with each entrails gorging track after another. “Marrow” is the second track and it shows them flex out a bit there’s blasting but then they hit a slow breakdown (one of many I’m happy to report.)

This is followed by “Grifted” and “Reduced (Gastronomically)” the first featuring some deep piggy squeals while the second is just like the beating a severed head would receive if it were being used as a soccer ball. “Measured Antipathy” has killer riffs galore and it isn’t until the sluggish snail trail of the fantastic “Generational Taint” a slow and methodical gut churning track, a pick axe to the stomach that is then twisted around.

I tend to get apprehensive with albums that are seventeen or so tracks long, and I’m not going to lie, because it has the potential to turn into a sloppy gash of a mess. Reduced Capabilities is not that album, so let me tell you that while it’s only 27:28 minutes long, and Fluids pump so much toxic sauce into the album, it doesn’t lag or become a mess. After “Generational Taint” is the awesome “Soot” a chest beating primate, an angry Sasquatch if you will. I hear some Deeds of Flesh (“Parted”) and Dying Fetus in a couple of the later tracks “Devalued” with it’s ripping tempo changes and the title track, especially. But always, there’s the spirit of Mortician and the swath of destruction they left with House by the Cemetery and Darkest Day of Horror to name two off the top of my head… yes, I know that there’s more.

If you wanted to make the argument that they’re just a Mortician clone, you could, but Fluids are more than that. After the hard-hitting and aforementioned “Parted” and “Unresponsive” there is, wait for it… a cover of Moby’s “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters”… it’s amazing. It isn’t the first time they’ve diddled with electronic sounds and as a closer for Reduced Capabilities it’s a perfect choice.

How does Reduced Capabilities stand up to their catalog? Like a steel soldier. It’s blistering from the opener “Poached” to the final cover track (look at it with an open mind.) Even without samples it’s a crushing album.

Let’s see (scratches beard), if you like Mortician, Lipoma, and Dying Fetus plus the also mentioned Deeds of Flesh. You’ll feel right at home with Reduced Capabilities.

Lipoma kicks things off in wonderfully brutal fashion with “Eternal Suffering” a lesson in brutality at 2.40 with some hyper-blasting goodness and vocals so guttural that it seems like their being ripped out of the intestinal tract. According to MetalArchives.com they’ve been in existence since 2021 with four EP’s and five split albums before 2022’s Horrors of Pathology full-length; so here I am at “Eternal Sufferings” a song that made me want to break out in this crazy Polka-inspired dance, all while chewing on my severed arm, and the slow building, crushing and heavier than a truckload of fake titties “Dermatologic Manifestations” two brutal as fuck tracks acting as a taster before full-length Odes to Suffering, out this year.

Fluids are fine purveyors of blood, guts and piles of severed heads. “Piled III: The Threepile” is their contribution to this four-course rotten dinner plate of destruction. Blasting straight out of the bowels of a dying beast with OSDM fury that only they can create. There’s a smell of blood that emanates from this track, it’s absolutely pummeling, and if you haven’t checked Fluids out… Why the fuck not? Go forth and listen, while you’re at it you can listen to…

Trocar are some sick motherfuckers. God fucking damn. “Wonders Cease” is one of the heaviest fucking tracks I’ve heard this year. Take Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Cattle Decapitation and The Berzerker; throw it in a pot full of body parts and blood broth and the end result will be Trocar. It’s no wonder though, seeing as how the members come from Fluids and Goatwhore: Zack Simmons (Goatwhore), Jan Grotle/ Walter Hale (Fluids) and Schuler Benson (VHS, Fluids).

The name of this split is Dissertations and I believe that is as accurate a title as you could get. These are lessons on how to hurt people through sonic annihilation. This slice of pain deserves every bit of attention.

December of 2022 had a lot of surprises, and this tight little cassette split was one of them. Seven tracks, the longest being Fluids’ “Heaven-Sent” (3:17) and the shortest being Nunslaughter’s “It’s You I Hate” (.31).

Neither band needs an introduction, Nunslaughter has been around for twenty-five fucking years, and their three contributions, the aforementioned “It’s You I Hate”, personal favorite “Raked Across the Coals” and the sickly slow “Into the Chasm”. These are violent outbursts of raw, Black Metal; bestial and savage with a production that’s as uncompromising as the music cracking your eardrums.

Arizona’s Fluids play brutal as a motherfucking bear attack, goregrind. They contribute four blistering tracks: “Hounded” a short lesson in brutality, “Varicose” a mid-paced at first then blasting maniac track. “Heaven-Sent” is beautifully uncontrollable, vocals are screams from Hell while the music rolls like a poisonous cloud. The album closer “Infantile Mysticism” is a brutal pounder, sort of like that final shovel to the neck that severs the head.

If you like Abysmal Lord and Blasphemy, grimy and sweaty Black Metal you’ll love Nunslaughter, but I’m guessing that if you already love them this will just make that love grow. Fluids get a fuller, more brutal sound. Everything is in your face, with no restraint at all, just right for fans of Fulci, Percusser and Mortician, definitely Mortician. This is a solid cassette that I highly recommend, whatcha waiting for?

You want goregrind done right, in the true Mortician spirit-then look no further.  On the outstanding Maggot Stomp label, this album destroys and even features a guest vocal appearance by Matti Way (Liturgy, Abominable Putridity etc)on the first 2 songs so you know the songs crush even extra.  The soundbites throughout this album, are all real and not sampled from horror movies.  Very twisted shit.

After a very disturbing intro, “Caught” cums blasting through your speakers with a very slow song, which will have you smiling ear to ear with the Mortician inspired fuzzy bass guitar sound-so freaking awesome.  This song is so heavy it opened up sinkholes inside of stinkholes across the nation.  “Shot” is up next and is an excerpt from a real life police arrest gone horribly wrong.  The programmed drum machine actually sounds pretty decent. On some of the grind blasts it may sound a little grating, but the holy shit groove part at the 1.30 part will have you and Matti Way bulldozer neighborhoods and turn them into cardboard boxes and create people falling out of their office buildings, like yesterday’s trash.  Monster gutturals and again going right into the slow section is perfect.

One of Mortician’s greatest songs was “Slaughterhouse” and I swear Fluids does a spot on take of it with “Hauled”.  The beginning is identical to the classic Mortician song, with the fuzzy bass and then right into that mid—paced riff that will have you lopping heads off from here to your Grandma’s house.  Fluids is crushing it by this point and this is just perfect brutality-not many bands are as heavy as these dudes.  Then the song picks up monster blast beats across the wall.  Then right into the dirge slow-down that has Scott “They Don’t call me Rotor Rooter for Nuthin” Magrath two-stepping to the post office then right to Chipotle afterwards.  The song eventually has some ridiculous computerized double bass thrown in that is the fastest programmed double bass ever recorded-no joke.  It’s so nuts and awesome at the same time.

“Seared” has some more Mortician worship going on and this song sounds, like “Slaughterhouse”, could have been on Hacked Up For Barbecue.  Some brutally heavy with super and I mean super inhumane guttural vocals that call to mind the awesome Squash Bowels from Poland.

Exploitative Practices is creatively thrown together.  10 songs in just under 30” and the one word song titles actually tell a story.  I liken it to what a serial killer would first do once the victim is captured until the eventual corpse disposal.  So say each song title and you will see what I mean-it’s actually pretty freaking genius, if you ask me and makes it even more disturbing when you throw in those actual real recorded clips, which are sprinkled throughout the album.  The clips are enhancements and never detract from the songs.

The cd layout is simple, no lyrics or anything.  The album production is louder than your voice echoing through the Grand Canyon saying REEEECCCOOOLLLAHHHHHH!  In terms of a true grindcore album, which encompasses some death metal, as well and goregrind Exploitative Practices was the best album last year in that category-it’s not even close.  Fluids have a bright future ahead of them and I have been listening to this album non-stop.  Buy or Die!!