This is the first album where TTFA is the logo and the full band name is not spelled out.  The band has been around since the early 00’s and I had many of their past albums, their 2014 Sexually Transmitted Torture, was one of my favorite albums from that year.  Unfortunately due to a move, close to two years ago, a number of my cds were lost, so not having that album I mentioned and some of their other ones irks the shit outta me still.

Kill. Bury. Repeat. is their 5^th proper studio album with 9 original songs as well as a bonus song of “Unleashing the Bloodthirsty” (Cannibal Corpse cover).  We have Michael Langner – Guitars/Vocals, Dylan Watt on drums and Brandon Mitchell on    Bass.  Any fan of older Suffocation, Gorgasm, Lividity, or Dismembered Fetus, will lap TTFA up like I eat pizza.

“Corrosive Form” begins with a nice drum roll and then right into the scorching blast beat, then the song slows and gets faster and Michael Langner, longtime band member, lets loose with his powerful grunting.  There are some samples thrown in, which go along with the song title. The 2.10 slowdown is excellent and some killer use of the double bass drums.  I really enjoy this guitar tone too.  It’s dirty and filthy sounding, but not muddy, therefore it’s discernible.

“Something Went Wrong” starts with some interesting vocal patterns and then right into the mid-rumbling groovy heaviness.  The part at the 54 second part is pretty lethal and then the super-fast double bass that erupts will rip your head off, almost getting into that Origin typewriter-style bass drum sound, which I am not the biggest fan of that double bass production; however, it’s much less processed on this and sounds more natural.  This is an excellent song to slam the live crowd with in the middle of their set.  Lots of tempo shifts, but those heavy mid-paced grooves will surely start up some great pits.  I love the bass guitar sound at the 3 minute section and then right into another slamming groove.  Excellent song, and I caught a little pinch harmonic action in there, so I was happy.

The title track starts immediately with a vicious and pummeling blast beat, then right into the groove and some melodic moments at the 1.45 section, which definitely adds some brevity to all the brutality.

“Scratch the Bone” at close to 6 minutes is the longest song.  It has more of those squealing pinch harmonics which brings us back to 90’s American death metal, which I love, and then the song brings forth a guitar solo and more of that filthy guitar tone.  The 3.30 part with the shouted vocals and then right into the pit inducing groove also needs to be in their live set.  This moment is a great highpoint on the album.  It is destructive and well crafted.  The Cannibal Corpse song is excellent and the emulating of Corpsegrinder on vocals works really well.

Kill. Bury. Repeat. is another damn fine installment of brutal American death metal act Torn The Fuck Apart (TTFA).  This is no frills dunk your head in the apple bobber game, death metal.  The songs are longer than I expected.  Sometimes these types of albums the songs are usually 3 minutes long, however, the band pushes that to 4 minutes and beyond.  As previously mentioned the dirty filthy guitar tone is something I truly enjoy on this album.  Well-crafted brutality!

In 2013 , I reviewed the second album ..The Dissection of Christ, from these Kansas City death metalers, it was a solid hodge-podge of death metal styles that showed some promise if a lack of direction and tonal focus. The only consistent thing was that the band really disliked the holy trinity.

Featuring some truly bizarre yet grotesquely wonderful artwork that shows the albums lyrical themes and style, the album is a vast improvement of ..The Dissection of Christ, as the band seemed to found a nice balance between burly goregrind and some whiddly melodies that give the album a little more character and style amid the deep bellows and twisting brutality. The backbone is an obvious Cannibal Corpse/Broken Hope sound and imagery, but the lead work of Nick Yeates, elevates the whole thing to something a little more. The last album did have a few moments of melody but it was a bit of a mish mash, but here, its used and rendered with much more confidence.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is by no means a game changer of classic album, but it is very good. The album is riddled with the cliched samples of women suffering, horror quotes etc (including the above reference quote from Eastbound and Down in the album’s opening track) , and that’s  OK if you are into that sort of thing, but amid the genre typical gore and misogyny, the band put together some memorable tunes and moments. Case and point towards the end of second track “Autopsy of a Cunt”, there’s a pretty cool sweep and groove, that you normally don’t hear in this style. A few other flourishes such as “Digested Genitals”, the oddly introspective mid sections of  “Sulfuric Semen Skank Dunk Tank” and “Inserted Vaginal Castration Device” and the penultimate title track are sprinkled around the album, making your ears perk up amid the carnage.

Of course the majority of the album is rife more standard, effective gurgling, blasting brutality that has much more focus and chops. The likes of opener “I Can’t Believe She Got in the Van with Me”, “Skinned and Sodomized”, “55 Gallon Crypt” deliver ample, cleanly produced gore grind savagery, that’s par for the course, and I’m intrigued how these guys continue to develop.

Plying a mish mash of death metal styles from brootal death metal, a little tech death, some Floridan styled classic death metal and a some goregrind, it’s hard to gauge TTFA to determine if they are a truly serious, Christ hating death metal band or more of a gimmick, purposely overdoing a steadfast death metal trope, and the delivery of the music isn’t really helping as its  a bit all over the place stylistically. There’s super deep growled  almost gurgled goregrind vocals, there’s lots of slams, and there’s a few twiddly bits and lots of blasting, but I’m never really sure if the band is committed to any of them other than their hate of Christ in the lyrics.

The production is decently burly, again mixing a little of all the above styles, and bassist seems to be a the centerpiece of the band, delivering a more technical twangy and twiddly backbone than the fairly base level death metal ruckus that the rest of the band deliver. None of it terrible, and a few times the band do settle into a decent moment here and there such as the surprisingly melodic solo that breaks out in “Our Serpent Savior”, the the clean break  and solo in “Dead Religion” or even the sudden acoustic instrumental “Purgatorium”, which all stand out like a sore thumb amid the rest of the  admittedly dumbed down material.

Whereas fellow Kansas City death metalers Marasmus were intently focused on a singularly repetitive style of death metal with their 2012 release, Mountains of Dead, TTFA are a little all over the place and don’t seem sure of their final sound. I’m wondering if a merging of two Kansas City death metal bands might produced something a little more memorable?