BY NATURE SO PERVERSE

"By Nature So Perverse" is the third full-length studio album by multi-national metal act Liquid Graveyard. The album was released through Sleaszy Rider Records in June 2016. It´s the successor to "The Fifth Time I Died" from 2011. There have been a couple of lineup changes since the last album as drummer Gustavo Segura has been replaced by Nicholas Barker and bassist Al Jimenez has been replaced by Shane Embury. The newcommers are of course both very prolific British musicians who are known from their involvement in artists like Napalm Death, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, and Brujeria, just to mention a few.

I don´t know if it´s the inclusion of the two new gentlement to the lineup, or if the ressurrection of guitarist John Walker´s other band Cancer in 2013 have anything to do with it, but "By Nature So Perverse" is a much more potent, intense, and extreme metal oriented release than the two preceding album releases from Liquid Graveyard. The two previous albums featured a strong progressive metal/avant-garde metal element, but that part of the band´s sound is considerably toned down on "By Nature So Perverse", which instead focuses almost exclusively on the death metal and thrash/groove metal influences which were also a big part of the earlier releases. There´s even the odd nod towards grindcore here and there, so "By Nature So Perverse" is generally a pretty extreme release.

To my ears this new more "normal" sound suits Liquid Graveyard much better. As much as I always praise bold and adventurous music, the first two Liquid Graveyard albums just felt inconsistent and the experimental part of the band´s music didn´t really work. So they´ve taken the best elements from the first releases and have built on them to create the powerful, raw, angry, and brutal sound on "By Nature So Perverse". Lead vocalist Raquel Walker (married to John) solely performs blackened snarling vocals on this album and doesn´t perform clean vocals like she did on the preceding releases from Liquid Graveyard.

Upon conclusion "By Nature So Perverse" is a bit unexpected if you´re familiar with the earlier Liquid Graveyard albums. Usually an artist turn on some knobs between releases, but Liquid Graveyard have turned the extreme metal knob all the way to the top and I´m sure the addition of Barker and Embury have given the Walkers a push in that direction. A good quality release overall and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).