Well here we are, Metal fiends: another “about 40 minute standard album of technical Death Metal.” Everything on here just screams SUFFOCATION! The rhythm, the vocals, the gore laden lyrics… all of it is just a blatant copy of SUFFOCATION! So, what separates AVULSED’S "Nullo (The Pleasures Of Self Mutilation)" from being something they possibly stole from SUFFOCATION while the two were sleeping in the same room? Not much, but there are a few things.

Musically, the album is pretty darn good, despite it being somewhat of a rip off. The drumming, guitars, and vocals can all be heard clearly without making the listener strain. From the opening track, “Breaking Hymens,” the music is in your face and pretty much refuses to let up. There are a few pretty cool introductory moments involving the guitars on tracks like “Voracious Backpacker,” “Nazino (Cannibal Hell),” and “She’s Hot Tonight (In My Oven)” but shortly the same rhythm pattern with the guitars chugging away and the drums pandering out the standard Death Metal sound takes over. The solos also are not that inspiring, particularly since throughout ninety percent of the album if you fast forward to the last fourth of the song they are all right there!

Vocals are deep, guttural, and not mean to be understood. There are a few interesting moments where they take a higher pitch or snarl - think of it as if Chris Barnes of SIX FEET UNDER had a better shriek amongst his growling - or on the final track where the growl is dragged out for miraculous long time. That being said, the vocals aren’t unbearable, but take something from SUFFOCATION, CANNIBAL CORPSE, or SIX FEET UNDER and you’ve got almost the exact same vocal style. A hybrid vocal rip off! The lyrics are also strongly in the vein of CANNIBAL CORPSE or SIX FEET UNDER as they roar about killing, raping, zombies, butchering, boiling, hacking, burning, and about every other topic that dismemberment has to offer. And it isn’t even done that classily.

A final note about this album would be that there are some hidden Easter eggs. Depending on which version of the album you get, after the “She’s Hot Tonight” there is a significant drop in sound quality and a few extra tracks, some demos/rarities and some covers (by EXODUS, WASP, and GOREFEST in particular). The music is pretty good but the production quality is lacking and one has to turn up the sound to hear properly. The solos are more varied, but that is because the band had to follow the cover song structure. Plus, it still isn’t very original because SIX FEET UNDER already released a bunch of Death Metal covers that are very similar to the ones that are heard here. Overall, this album isn’t anything spectacular and just a chugging clone of some of the better Death Metal bands out there. Only for those who enjoy the regurgitated.

(Online February 2, 2010)