Jungle Rot - Jungle Rot

I was hoping for a bit more from a late-career self-tiled album from these guys, but it’s still hard to justify complaining too much when they pretty much capture their own essence to a tee and with little to point out as weakness.

Yes, Jungle Rot play very straightforward, meat and taters death metal. They’re not excessively brutal or violent in their lyrics, they’re not particularly fast or technical, they’re not even really all that unique of composers. They seem to do well to work a few notable bits into each of their songs, but ultimately they come through with not a whole lot to offer that doesn’t just sound like run-off from someone like Decapitated or Obituary.

Their self-titled release definitely nails that no-nonsense approach, but for as nondescript as this thing is, I would probably have liked some kind of nonsense somewhere, some kind of spice to break up the mid-tempo, one-dimensional monotony of this album. Again, it’s not like it’s an atrociously poorly written and performed album, in fact the tight performances are the only backbone this album has. It’s just so devoid of character it’s hard to care about even while it’s playing.