Review: NEUNTOTER “Stench to Stench”

NEUNTOTER “Stench to Stench”
Xtreem Music

With 28 songs shoehorned into 54 minutes it’s fair to say that Neuntoter don’t hang around. By their own extreme standards the three minute opener ‘Born Deformed and Leprous’ can almost be seen as a long haul ride, especially when you factor in that the following song is the 10-second explosion ‘Vein Effect’. Yep, you heard that right 10 seconds! And even that incendiary interlude isn’t the longest track on this caustic collection.

In case the name of Neuntoter is unfamiliar to you, a brief history lesson will shed some light on them and this album, which is essentially constructed around a toxic demo double-fister from the early 90s –Slaughter (90) and Consumed in Gore (91).

Although formed as a four-piece in the Netherlands, by the time things started to reach demo stage Neuntoter had taken on the sonic shape of a three-headed beast much like their heroes Motorhead, Venom and Sodom. And so the twisted triumvirate featured on this album are, Vomitor ‘La Cosa’ (bass/vocals), Monsters Invocator (guitar) and Hellbanger (drums).

Neuntoter were leading lights of the early 90s Dutch extreme hardcore scene offering up a brutal and maniacal menu of grind straight from the Napalm Death handbook. No surprise therefore to see the iconic ‘Scum’ covered – one of two cover tracks to appear on Stench to Stench.

Spanish hardcore label Xtreem have very kindly packaged together all the band’s demos, topping things up with a live recording from Barcelona in 1992, to create this combustible compendium that captures the sounds, savagery and yes, stench of Neuntoter.

But while this material is rough enough to clean out an oven, there’s no getting away from the compelling appeal of offal overtures such as ‘Scumfixion’, ‘Rot Alive’ and the pulverizing ‘Emetic Foulness’. The sound is more raw than a half-eaten carcass but thanks to the demented ugliness of Vomitor’s vocals, Invocator’s fuzzed up guitar chugs and  Hellbanger’s persistently deviant drumming you’re left regretting the fact that you never caught Neuntoter live.

The Slaughter demo features ‘Day of the Deads’ which stands out as it’s a real endurance test that is eight minutes long. Not sure how that one came about but it’s an interesting distraction from the dirty deluge of grind and captures the Dutch trio in a slightly less angry state of mind.

After the demos there are half-a-dozen riotous live moments captured at a show in Barcelona in 1991, the highlights of which are ‘Dense Intestine Grinded’ and a cover of the Obituary classic ‘Slowly We Rot’.

A year or so later the name of Neuntoter was consigned to the dustbin as the band went under the name of Demented Foeticide, although this rebirth only lasted a year or so before that too died a messy death.

After a 20-year hiatus Demented Foeticide featured on a split EP with Venereal Disease, issued via Kremon Records. I’m not entirely sure if there are any future plans for this most extreme and obscure of Euro grind acts. At least Stench to Stench has captured Neuntoter’s aural achievements forever, offering a window into a time, world, and state of mind only a few people ever get to experience.