200 Stab Wounds - Manual Manic Procedures

200 Stab Wounds is a death metal band from Cleveland, Ohio who formed in 2019. “Manual Manic Procedures,” is their second full-length album, in addition to also having an EP. 

As if they hadn't already proved it with their debut album, 200 Stab Wounds definitely make a firm statement for their place in the pantheon of modern death metal with “Manual Manic Procedures.”

This album manages to do what many albums cannot, especially those facing the possibility of folding under the pressure of the so-called dreaded “sophomore slump,” which is to keep the sound of prior releases intact while managing to expand those ideas in a natural way.

This album adds in a hefty load of what I’ll call atmosphere although the ideas of old school brutality don’t let it become actual atmospheric death metal, per say.   For example, the long intro led by clean tones opens the song “Hands Of Eternity.”  It stretches their sound to a new field of vision yet it feels familiar all at once.  

The bass tones are deep and rich, heavy without being overly brutal.  The band plays it in a very genuine fashion, understanding when to double down on their established sound or when to take a slightly different path.  Around the 2 minute mark, the band begins to let their death metal make its presence known, completely with speedy riffage and a hefty dose of deathly screaming growls. 

This song, much like the album as a whole, has a new feel to it but keeps the charm of offering truly disgusting death metal imagery.   One look at the cover will give anyone the idea as to what the lyrics center around even when the most in a step above most other deathly acts.

The title track offers some weird noises in the beginning and just when I started to wonder what exactly was happening, the bass drops some straight up groove just before the band begins to chop everything into little pieces.  Much of the band’s sound could be regulated to knuckle dragging caveman riffs but the instrumentation, such as the tight, crisp drumming, and the world breaking bass, keep everything as sharp as a scalpel.  The band is brutal but they are sophisticated with their particular brand of audio surgical horror. 

The most surprising song on the album is the instrumental “Led To The Chamber/Liquified.” It’s eerie yet playfully disturbing riffs fit right at home between the guitar solos and stalwart rhythm section.  It’s a fun song that divides the album in half, the band using this unique approach in a very effective manner.

Still, the band is death metal and they don’t ever forget it.  Rhythm prowess flows like blood on “Fresh From Within,” offering a nonstop three minute ride of headbanging guitar, pounding guns, and the vocals from the bowels of some stinking, rotting corpse. The sound turns profoundly aggressive before the surprise twist of clean tones that finish the song.

Seemingly echoing the ending, “Defiled Gestation,” mixes its own clean tones into a whirlwind of double bass.   The bass guitar itself is a never ending piledriver, from which the rest of the band follows right behind.  Surprising flourishes of melody spring up in the later half, disguised as lightning flashes of carnage.  More melody creeps in to end the song on a high note with a melodic but biting guitar solo.

If the first song on the album was something special then the final song, “Parricide,” is its evil twin brother.  The opening solo cuts through the filth with ease but disappears at just the right moment to allow the nasty notes much breathing room. The last minute and a half is some of the best moments in the band’s history….eviscerating guitar ending the song like a fire sweeping through the inside of a crematory.

With “Manual Manic Procedures,”  200 Stab Wounds prove they have more than enough staying power to go the distance in a very crowded genre.  This album establishes their sound, while pushing it forward, and paving the way for the possibility of the band becoming legends in the future.