200 Stab Wounds – Manual Manic Procedures

One Listen Review

1st Listen 27 June 24
Reviewed 28 June 24

Metal Blade Records

Released 28June 24

In 2021, 200 Stab Wounds announced themselves to the wider metal world with the spiffingly good ‘Slave to the Scalpel’. Tours followed, with yours truly seeing them support the mighty Cattle Decapitation in Glasgow, where to be perfectly blunt, I fell in love with the band.

A short time after this tour, Manual Manic Procedures has been released and our Cleveland boys have pushed the boat out further into gore-drenched, aggressive death metal. They have not held back on this one!

Opening track, ‘Hands of Eternity’ opens with a slow picked guitar, whilst Ezra Cooks bass rumbles menacingly in the background. The track builds, and

after a minute a riff appears that just demands you headbang. It is a further minute for the vocals to enter and we are treated to a very good start to an album. From there on, tracks vary from having a more immediate impact (Gross Abuse) to well-placed two-piece instrumentals (Led to the Chamber / Liquified). The latter builds with synth-laden menace until part 2 brings a more natural death metal vibe. A 29 minute album usually doesn’t really need an interlude of this type, but such is the quality of the albums structure, it blends seamlessly into the heavy.

And yes – I did say 29 minutes, well 29mins and 28 seconds. Manual Manic Procedures is a short album. It is 9 tracks long and so it is obvious that some of them are not overly long. This presents one of the small problems the album has, and it is actually a compliment. You wish that some of the shorter tracks didn’t end. Perhaps it benefits the album that they do – always leave the audience wanting more is the saying!

The riffs scattered throughout the album are excellent. These guys know how to provide a catchy riff. I lost count the amount of times I was absent-mindedly headbanging along. The air-guitar was out and the joy was palpable. ‘Flesh From Within’, ‘Release the Stench’, ‘Defiled Gestation’, all 3 of these tracks see my notes with the word ‘RIFF’ written in capitals.

The fact that the band have a great old-school death metal tone to the tracks also benefits the riff. Don’t worry though, Manual Manic Procedures is not just a throw-back death metal album, it is very much a modern take on the genre and it is an album that should see 200 Stab Wounds step up into the realm of the big bands in the genre.

This album is absolutely great!