Search - Impaled :: Mondo Medicale

The First Gore Metal Classic of the New Millennium

Ken | Youngsville, LA USA | 08/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What happens when you place your trust in the hands of the unscrupulous? When the doctors are far, far sicker than the patients? When you undergo their knives, their anesthetics, and when you put your life in the hands of the deranged? You've just entered the world of "Mondo Medicale". And yes, if you are fanatical over Gore Metal, this album is really that incredible.
The horror-movie piano opening sets a spine-tingling mood that you won't soon forget, and as the ominous guitar and frighteningly rousing spoken-word introductions are made, you're squinting in anticipation of the surgical blasphemies that await you. And when it all takes off, you wonder where this album has been all your life. Well, for those with Extreme Metal inclinations, that is...
Sitting comfortably between genres like American Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Traditional Gore, and head-bangin' Thrash, Mondo Medicale combines the most incendiary and brutal aspects of all these styles. Each track is a culmination of brilliant riffs played with such passion and hunger that I haven't heard from a Metal band in quite a while. Immediate and technically precise, yet crushingly heavy all the same, it's easy to see why each track is memorable and demands repeated listens. I often found myself rewinding in amazement to hear parts of tracks before they were even done.
Gore Metal albums are notorious for sounding short on production - and I admit that it does actually help the destitute mood and atmosphere desired by many Gore acts, but Impaled have succeeded in recording crisply produced record here - which is great because it would be a shame to bury these awesome songs under tons of lo-fi hiss and noise.
This is one of those rare memorable releases where each member contributes something distinctively amazing to the proceedings. The impeccable drumming and fluid bass-playing flawlessly pin down rhythmic fundamentals, crushing grooves, and pounding transitions. The twin guitars make the pit of my stomach quiver in ecstasy. Imagine the unholy alliance of the first two albums from Entombed and The Haunted, only sped up a bit. Surgically stitch on tons of melodic underpinnings ala At The Gates and infuse the likes of early Carcass and Autopsy and you've only begun to get the picture. No, I'm not kidding. Plus, to top off the proceedings in class, they actually give their guitar solos within each song titles, which gives one a life and identity of its own - a nice touch. On top of all this worship-worthy riffing, if that wasn't enough, are the tortured scathing screams, bellowing, grunts and death-rattles of THREE tag-team vocalists satisfying their fixations on surgical malpractice and blood-soaked gore all at the same time. I've always had a fascination for multi-vocalist bands, but this exceeds any expectation of how great I thought they could ever sound.
There's definitely a thematic thread running through each track, so it's not far fetched to call Mondo Medicale a concept album, but make no mistake - these songs are individual marvels of morbid metal. The incessant grinding, thrashing madness, melodic death metal technicality, and mid-paced rattling - all book-ended by two monumental pillars of sound - it's all impossible to deny. Nothing short of brilliant, I say. I just hope I'm not the only one out there who realizes just how important this album is. Ladies and gentlemen, a new era of Gore Metal has begun. Fetch the surgeons, boys."

They belong dead....

Ken | 07/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"but im glad they arent! Impaled is one of the best things to happen to metal in years. excellent vocals(the high ones are killer!), awesome solos, solid drums, and hilarious/disgusting lyrics. what more could you ask for? call them carcass clones, call them lame, call them whatever you want(they call themselves worse things!), Impaled rules. buy this!!!!!"

Freakin' great death metal

Ken | 07/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If the crazed heavy metal loving alien parasite from the 80's scifi/horror flick "The Hidden" walked into the record store I was working at, held an UZI to my head and said "Give me a car and a heavy frikkin' straight up death metal cd" I'd toss him the keys to my Lamborghini and gladly ask him if he would like his copy of Impaled's brilliant "Mondo Medicale" in paper or plastic.

One of my most played metal releases in several years! Super catchy and memorable songs, ultra heavy production, crushing riffs, tight as hell drumming, and RAD solos, this album is a throw back to the days when death metal bands were distinct and actually wrote songs, instead of just tossing 100 wanky riffs together, or even worse, the other end of the spectrum, putting up a website and doofy logo with a bunch of cheesy internet gore shots and god awful sloppy false metal noise, before they even learn to tune their guitars. Highly recommended to fans of 80s-90s death metal, back when death metal was DEATH METAL.

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