UMUR "The Pungent Stench Sessions" is a collaborative album release by Austrian death metal/death´n´roll act Pungent Stench and US artist Dr. Heathen Scum (known from among other acts The Mentors). The album was released through Mentor Records in April 2010. If you´re familiar with the extremity, the depravity, and over the top hedonism of the two artists, it´s no surprise that a collaboration saw the light of day. So what do you get when you combine two rotten entities?...well...

Stylistically the death metal/death´n´roll elements of Pungent Stench are not a part of the sound. So this is basically a filthy, hard rocking rock´n´roll album with some very primitive and nasty sexual tinged lyrics. It doesn´t get much more stupid and hedonistic (...and I´m sure some would add misogynistic) than the lyrics to opening track "Hot, Tight, and Wet" (...and then again, every track on the album features lyrics like these). Let´s just establish that the lyrics aren´t exactly respectful towards women. It´s like listening to a porn movie translated to music. Women are constantly referred to as sluts, bitches, whores...etc.

So yeah the lyrics are pretty offensive, but that´s to be expected from someone associated with The Mentors. I can´t say Pungent Stench add much of their usual identity to the music and it´s pretty primitive and badly performed rock´n´roll. A few of the lyrics make me crack a smile...but that´s it. This is simply too ridiculous/ignorant/offensive, amaturish/untight, and also pretty badly produced to make me excited. I´m sure there is a segment out there who´ll enjoy this...but it´s no one I know. A 2 star (40%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Club Mondo Bizarre - for Members Only" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Austrian extreme metal act Pungent Stench. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in March 1994. The vinyl version of the album features 10 tracks while the CD version features 4 additional instrumental versions of tracks from the album. They were originally meant for a competition, where the band asked their fans to send in the most sick vocals they could possibly perform. The most sick and perverted vocal contribution would then be released on a single or as a bonus track on a future Pungent Stench release. I remember reading interviews with the band, where they enthusiastially spoke about the competition, but as far as I know the result of the competition has yet to be released. There are several different cover artworks for "Club Mondo Bizarre - for Members Only" and several of them are censored because of their explicit sexual nature. The original cover artwork is full of pictures of the band wearing S/M gear posing in a S/M club and I guess that´s too much for the authorities in many countries around the world (fortunately not in mine. To each his own I say).

If the cover artwork didn´t give it straight away, the perverted gore themes of previous releases by Pungent Stench are continued here, which is also apparent from reading songtitles like "Klyster Boogie", "In Search of the Perfect Torture" and "Fuck Bizarre". Pungent Stench were never a subtle bunch of guys. Stylistically the band has moved completely into death´n´roll territory. That part of their sound was already introduced on "Been Caught Buttering (1991)" and refined a little more on the "Dirty Rhymes and Psychotronic Beats (1993)" EP, but the transition from their early deathgrind days is now over. Besides the raw semi-growling vocals, you´ll actually find very few death metal elements on "Club Mondo Bizarre - for Members Only". The tracks are based on relatively simple and groove oriented riffs (which are for the most part surprisingly "non groovy" and stiff sounding) and while some tracks deviate from what sounds like a vers/chorus structured format, the tracks aren´t that adventurous when it comes to structure. The band often repeat their ideas too many times during the tracks and as a consequence most tracks feel longer than they are and sometimes they are a bit of a tedious listen. Sure a track like "Klyster Boogie" brings a smile to my face, but I generally don´t smile enough during the playing time and that´s never a good sign.

The sound production is organic, fat, and relatively powerful, and the band are decently playing (without showing anything out of the ordinary). All in all "Club Mondo Bizarre - for Members Only" is a decent album, but I have no problem if there are years between my listens and when I do listen to the album it mostly comes off after a few tracks. At least to me it´s a step down from "Been Caught Buttering (1991)" and a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

Vim Fuego This album has the sickest artwork ever, bar none. The picture of two grizzled old men, decapitated and kissing is the perfect preparation for the audio filth contained within. ‘Been Caught Buttering’ is pure musical perversion of the vilest kind, repulsive and degrading, or porn for deviants, depending on your point of view. Everything on this album is distorted, from the instruments to the band’s view of the world. Guitar, bass and drums merge in a morass of visceral death metal sludge, thick and almost impenetrable. There are two gears on this album- high speed, almost tune-free jackhammering, or a mid-paced grooving grind. Schrenk occasionally pulls some odd, fucked up noises from his guitar in the place of solos, and Wank (a very common surname in Austria, in case you were wondering) sometimes hits an extra drum or two, which is about as close at the band ever gets to embellishing their music. This is all about the vocals though. Schrenk gargles and groans his way through the deliciously revolting lyrics. How revolting? Well, “Shrunken and Mummified Bitch” is about, well, shrinking and mummifying a prostitute. “Splatterday Night Fever” graphically explores the putrescent consequences of casual sex. Elsewhere, there’s rebirth by crawling through your mother’s entrails, mass murder both sick and sexual, cannibalism, and hideous deformity. Most comic of everything on offer is ‘Sputter Supper’. Wank’s wife butchers a different neighbour for his supper every evening, including the annoying kid upstairs, and next on the menu is the new janitor. ‘Been Caught Buttering’ is a good old fashioned old school piece of Death Metal obscenity. It has no socially redeeming features, zero melody, is rough as fuck, and in places, it reeks of rancid dickcheese. It couldn’t be much better.

UMUR "Dirty Rhymes and Psychotronic Beats" is an EP release by Austrian death metal act Pungent Stench. The EP was released through Nuclear Blast Records in April 1993 and bridges the gap between the band´s 2nd and 3rd full-length releases "Been Caught Buttering (1991)" and "Club Mondo Bizarre for Members Only (1994)".

Stylistically the music on "Dirty Rhymes and Psychotronic Beats" also bridges the gap between the two albums, as the new original tracks on the EP are less death metal and more death´n´roll in style. It´s only "Viva la Muerte" and "Horny Little Piggy Bank", that fall under the catagory of new original tracks though. The 7 track, 33:35 minutes long EP features two new tracks, two cover tracks, an intro, and two re-recorded versions of "Blood, Pus, and Gastric Juice" from the band´s debut full-length studio album "For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh (1990)".

The two originals are among the best tracks on the album but the Mentors cover "Four ´F´ Club" and especially the Warning cover "Why Can the Bodies Fly" are both pretty great too. To my ears the inclusion of female backing vocals and handclaps on the latter mentioned are a brilliant move. I can´t say I´m too thrilled about the two versions of "Blood, Pus, and Gastric Juice" though. The original track wasn´t too interesting to start with and the "rare Groove mix" version on "Dirty Rhymes and Psychotronic Beats" is only slightly better than the original. To my ears the "Tekkno-House mix" version that closes the EP is not that interesting either. It´s an electronic version.

The sound production is raw, distorted and powerful. The snare drum has a tendency to sound like someone is beating on a cardboard box, which can be a slight distraction at times, but it´s a minor issue. Despite the fact that only four out of seven of the tracks on the EP are really great (the intro track is a bit redundant too) and especially the "Tekkno-House mix" version of "Blood, Pus, and Gastric Juice" drags my rating down a bit, I still feel that a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved. The band are by the way still as sick and twisted as ever, which should of course be apparent already by looking at the vile cover artwork (which exists in several censored versions), but certainly also if you read the lyrics. Sexual perversions mixed with blood´n´gore. It shouldn´t be taken too serious though. Pungent Stench was always a band out to have fun and never took them themselves or their music too serious. I guess the fact that they chose to cover a Mentors track says a lot about what kind of an act they were.

UMUR "Been Caught Buttering" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Austrian death metal trio Pungent Stench. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in October 1991. While "For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh (1990)" earned the band some success, "Been Caught Buttering" really put their name on the European death metal map. The album even spawned promotional music videos for the tracks "Shrunken and Mummified Bitch" and "Sick Bizarre Defaced Creation". It should be noted that the 2001 re-issue features two bonus tracks titled "Daddy Cruel" and "The Ballad of Mangled Homeboys".

The simple and filthy death metal style (with the occasional deathgrinding part) of the debut album is continued on "Been Caught Buttering", but with an added groove element (and even the odd funky slapbass part in "Sick Bizarre Defaced Creation"). In fact there are parts on the album that smell like death´n´roll a couple of years before that style was made popular by the likes of Entombed and Gorefest. The perverted blood´n´gore themes are in a similar style as the ones on the debut album albeit with an even more sick humourous twist. Tracks like "Sputter Supper" and especially the album highlight "Splatterday Night Fever" feature moments that are absolutely hilarious if you are able to appreciate the deranged humour. Sometimes the music is a bit too simple and formulaic, but "Been Caught Buttering" is overall a greatly entertaining release.

The music is delivered with a nice organic touch by the trio (there´s an almost filthy punked attitude about it) and the raw sound production is also something that suits the music well. The guitar is distorted to a point where it´s not always obvious what is being played (noisy buzzaw style), but somehow that´s not a serious distraction. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.