Artist: Scab Hag
Country: USA
Label: Self-Released
Formats: CD EP
Year: 2023
Although Scab Hag’s self-released debut EP from 2021 was reissued on cassette tape by two different labels in the months following up to its original CD release (Cemetery Horror Productions and Frozen Scream Imprint both released a cassette tape version), the band again is self-releasing this second EP that saw the light of day at the last semester of 2023.
Just like the debut EP, Scab Hag is serving us with some down tuned and mostly low-tempo, riff-based Death Metal. That debut EP, ‘Pustulent Perversions’, was a rather enjoyable yet little uplifting affair, quite fairly, just basically like 90% of the bands that purvey this sort of music. It is only rarely that a band is able to stand out of the pack and, frankly, Scab Hag is not one of them.
But, fairness dictates that both the debut EP and this new one are just enjoyable for what they are: simple, riff-heavy and groovy Death Metal. Some of the riffs on offer do have that tasty and angular Mortician groove with a more or less comparable crunch to it – it might not come as a total surprise that the EP closes off with a Mortician cover (‘Zombie Apocalypse’). The occasional guitar lead is the icing on the cake and saves the music from perhaps being a bit too interchangeable. On the other hand, the more or less mandatory horror movie sample and the rather dry and dull sounding vocals don’t do much justice to the music.
Those who cannot get enough of this sort of horror-drenched, slow- to mid-tempo Death Metal could just try to check this CD, but then again, I would rather suggest you to pick up that last beastly Mortuary Ghoul album.
