Lymphatic Phlegm – Roughly Excised – Putrefindings, Morbidescriptions and Necrognoses (2021)

January 28, 2025

As someone who “came up” (in grindcore terms) through the late 00’s MySpace explosion of DIY gore and/or pornogrind projects, Brazil’s Lymphatic Phlegm felt like weird outliers; purveyors of the kind of music that would inform and inspire that entire wave of bands, yet standing out as weird and original in their own right. I’ve said it before, but at times, Lymphatic Phlegm sounded more like a super strange black metal project than a tried-and-true goregrind act.

Fast foward many, many years then, to 2021’s Roughly Excised, and things have changed quite a lot. Lymphatic Phlegm is now a legendary name in the scene, with a bazillion splits and releases under their belts, and yet, as far as I know, Roughly Excised is only the band’s third full-length record proper.

I would never have expected this record to be as polished as it is; Lymphatic Phlegm and “polished” shouldn’t really be going together in the same sentence, but here we are, and what we have is some fucking fantastic goregrind. The drum programming here, whilst more “typical” than the pummelling, soulless barrage of Lymphatic records past, kicks like a mule. It also seems far less mechanical than on previous albums. Riff-wise, things are still more “black metal recorded in a swamp” than “black metal recorded in a frozen forest”, but more than ever we are getting more “brutal” guitar parts. Topping off the sickness is the incredible vocals, which have always been a staple of this band.

Outside of an intermission at (what I assume, as a digital listener) the end of side A, this album doesn’t let up, resulting in a solid chunk of goregrind that is sure to block the toilet. Truly, it is disgusting, and truly is it worth your time.