Pharmacist – Flourishing Extremities On Unspoiled Mental Grounds (2022)

March 12, 2024

If the stankin’ mush of the first Pharmacist full length is akin to Symphonies of Sickness, then this perplexing follow up is akin to Necroticism. It sounds trite to compare this entire band’s work to that of Carcass, but if you are even remotely familiar with Pharmacist then you’ll know why I’ve done this LOL

Real talk though, I did not expect this record to be the way it is. Pharmacist are one of the best “true” gory death metal bands around at the moment (I’m talking borderline goregrind, pathological lyrics, hideous medical cover art, the works!) and I’ve been rabidly enjoying their previous splits and records. I did not expect this sophomore record to be stuffed to the gills with Chuck Schuldiner style guitar solos. And we’re not talking one or two – this thing is fucking stacked with them! 

It draws a bit of a strange parallel to the grinding mush of the previous music, but it does work in the context of the band’s development. It mirrors both the previously mentioned Carcass’ and Death’s (Schuldiner) ascent from gory death metal to more progressive and dare I say cleaner pastures. It is, as I said, just not what I expected. But always expect the unexpected, right? 

I’ll be very interested to see where Pharmacist go from here.