Album Review : 200 Stab Wounds - Manual Manic Procedures (2024)
In the great 2024 bingo card of social issues, I don’t think anyone had the online cancelation of death metal. Some poor sensitive soul stumbled upon Cannibal Corpse lyrics on Twitter and got very freaked out, blissfully unaware that it’s going on for over thirty years. Even if it has receded from popular culture, disgusting death metal is alive and well today and the most promising flag bearers for the new generation of gore-obsessed maniacs are, without the shadow of a doubt, 200 Stab Wounds from Cleveland, Ohio.
Their new record Manual Manic Procedures ranks up there with the old school classics of the genre.
The first single from Manual Manic Procedures left critics and fans somewhat speechless as it has a long, atmospheric intro and a mid-tempo groove that’s very unlike anything they’ve done before. Plot twist: Hands of Eternity is the album opener and acts merely as an appetizer for what’s about to hit you upon the head. It takes its sweet time to wind up, but it delivers 200 Stab Wounds trademark bouncy riffs, killer tremolo picking and even a weirdo bass bridge that adds to the overall unpredictability of the record.
The real carnage begins on Gross Abuse though, where Steve Buhl and Ray MacDonald deliver an absolute barrage of groovy old school death metal riffs. It’s not even two minutes long, but it’s thick and straight as a freight train. Buhl’s belts out an elite, girthy vocal performance. The song transitions seamlessly into the title track, which really emphasize 200 Stab Wounds' uncanny ability to sound as traditional of a death metal band as it gets while featuring all sorts of fun, unique technical quirks that give them such a strong identity.
Energy and brutality are the two main strengths of 200 Stab Wounds, but their songwriting has an egalitarian quality to it that’s a lot of fun. They’re one of these bands where all the instruments have breathing room even if the production is thick and suffocating, Release the Stench features some of the thickest grooves on the record and gnarly-ass guitar and bass tones that your would get your mom worried about you. The riffing on that song is so fucking relentless, it would make it hard for the pope not to mean mug to it.
Led to the Chamber/Liquified is an instrumental two parter featuring a quite appropriate horror synth intro and a surprise touch of melody and chaotic, almost noise-like element. You guys know how much I love my noise. It acts as the perfect introductory segue into the second part of the record that comes flying out the door like a bomb blast with Flesh from Within, a pulverizing piece of OSDM with throwback solos and catchy. hooks guaranteed to set fire to any venue. Bonus points for the funky Metallica outro.
To say that 200 Stab Wounds are influenced by Morbid Angel would be an understatement, but it’s perhaps most apparent on Defiled Gestation. It’s a catchier, groovier number and half of the ring is pure riffing. This could have been on Altars of Madness or Convenant. It's also the longest song on the record at 4:24. Ride the Flatline is a straightforward, but pummelling proposition that somehow features a vocal cameo by the drummer of Code Orange Jami Morgan. Fans of chugs and blast beats will be pleased.
The closer Parricide is the only other song on Manual Manic Procedures that clocks over four minutes. It’s one of the most intricate songs on the record, at least in terms of lyrics and riffing. Steve Buhl is unassailable sonically throughout the album, but there’s an extra effort put in storytelling here. Both lyrically and compositionally. In terms of old school death metal, it’s perhaps the most timeless song they’ve ever recorded. Give it to any unassuming metalhead and he’ll think it’s from the nineties.
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That’s about it. 200 Stab Wounds don’t reinvent the wheel with Manual Manic Procedures, but if anything they’s shown that they can craft pretty fucking efficient wheels and blaze past everyone on death metal boulevard. It would be nineties death metal worship if they weren’t so compositionally quirky and dynamic. They’re who the kids should be worrying about, not Cannibal Corpse. 200 Stab Wounds is going to have a long, successful and lyrically disgusting career and thank Baphomet for that.
8.1/10
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