Lord Gore, Lord Gore, Lord Gore. Say it three times in a mirror and you might get decapitated by front man Gorge himself, but probably not. Resickened was Lord Gore's last release before calling it quits two years later in 2006, and they left their legacy intact with a final album full of great guitar work, brutal drumming, and some of the best death metal vocals of any album.

I repeat, the vocals really push this album over the top, which is saying something because death metal vocals are pretty terrible by default. In this instance, however, Gorge's gurgling lows lend the album a putrefied atmosphere that would be sorely lacking without him. Gorge sounds like if Glenn Benton and Corpsegrinder had their lungs sewn together and then got bronchitis. Somebody get him a throat lozenge.

Vocals aside, a second major strength of Resickened is that all of the songs grab your attention straight away. The opening to Brainfucker makes me want to uplift every piece of furniture in my house. Gastric Gore has a hook worth buying the album alone for. The blasts, solos and slower doomy parts all come at the right crucial moments. Well done, Lord Gore, well done.

That said, the songs themselves, though performed exceedingly well, are also predictable to a fault. Resickened is victim to the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-bridge-chorus-end formulaic outpouring that many bands have adopted throughout the years, and not just those of the metal genre. By the fourth song you know what to expect, but the good news is that it’s so well done you also won’t care. My initial impression was that the songs could have been more original, but a few days later I found myself humming certain riffs. Sometimes catchy is not always bad.

Finally, while I usually care nothing about a band’s presentation, the artwork for Resickened is sickeningly wonderful and needs mention. Some sort of Lovecraftian cockbeast watches on as two amputated women, pregnant with wriggling demonic larvae, have Trioxin pumped into their gas masks, the same chemical responsible for the zombies in the Night of the Living Dead series. Sure, why not?

If you are looking for a pioneer band to revolutionize the metal genre, keep looking. Lord Gore sets out to do straightforward death grind songs with some doom parts mixed in for good measure, and that’s what you get. If you have no interest in death metal, grindcore, or doom, then this won’t change your mind. If these genres appeal to you, however, Resickened will surely reaffirm your good taste in metal.