Blood Harvest Records announces February 9th, 2024 as the international release date for the highly anticipated second album of Australia’s Contaminated, Celebratory Beheading, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
Back in 2017, Contaminated announced their arrival – loudly, sickly – onto the international death metal map with their debut album, Final Man, via Blood Harvest. Graced with disturbingly detailed cover art, the Australians approximated the vivid visuals with ichor-dripping DEATH METAL of a most diseased & disgusting hue. At every angle and across every moment, Final Man spewed filth; song titles like „Mired in Shit,“ „Boneless Mass,“ and „Co-Opted Into Worthless Sludge“ soundly proved that content met form. A couple years later, a split 7″ with comrades KUTABARE followed, after which Contaminated were quiet on the recording front. But alas, earlier this spring, a split 7″ with long-running sludge-lords Fistula arrived.
Still, two songs in the past six years is criminal, but Contaminated make up for that quietude with their long-awaited second album, Celebratory Beheading. Upping the disgusting stakes yet again with its cover art, Celebratory Beheading literally explodes into being, blasting its filth fast and free before bringing in stomping-yet-angular breakdowns and a whole host of gut-churning intensity. In many ways, Celebratory Beheading’s clearly-framed cover mirrors Contaminated’s sonic shift; whereas Final Man roamed within a malodorous murk, the Aussies‘ second full-length sharpens their attack with frightening efficiency. Nevertheless, the latent sensations from that rancid debut remain – rippling disgust, bottomless decay, slipstreaming vomit – only that, now, they’re rendered in impossibly powerful tones. Rarely has a deathgrinding record sounded this plausibly professional whilst retaining an authentically underground vibe.
Prepare to lose your head over Contaminated’s Celebratory Beheading! In the meantime, hear the brand-new track „An Unnatural End“ at Blood Harvest’s Bandcamp: Celebratory Beheading | CONTAMINATED | Blood Harvest (bandcamp.com)
