Track By Tracks: Last Retch - Abject Cruelty (2025)

Abject Cruelty – Track by Track

In Steel City, cruelty is not a rare sight. Hamilton is a place where decay spreads from every corner, and for the most vulnerable, suffering is constant. Fear, struggle, and hardship are part of the daily landscape. That shared outrage became the fuel for eight slabs of unflinching, old-school death metal. Each track on Abject Cruelty is its own twisted chapter in that story.

1. Abject Cruelty:

The record does not begin so much as it detonates. The title track sets the oppressive tone immediately, with all instruments locking into a punishing tremolo riff and relentless double-kick attack. The sound is suffocating and dizzying, built for endurance. It moves between punishing speed and a groove-heavy verse that stomps like a steel-toed boot. The tempo was fine-tuned until it hit the perfect balance of tension and release.

2. Beasley Meth Merchants:

This is the closest the band gets to a “fun” death metal song, drawing from the precision and energy of Heartwork-era Carcass. The upbeat riffing hides a much darker subject. Written in an apartment overlooking Hamilton’s Beasley neighborhood, it captures a place where addiction and mental illness form a trap that is almost impossible to escape. It is catchy enough to make you move but heavy enough to crush the mood.

3. Dissecting the Leper:

Some riffs never die. Three ideas from as far back as 2008 kept returning during writing sessions, but never found the right structure until a bone-crushing breakdown riff tied them together. Slowing the tempo gave the song new weight, turning it into a short and feral blast designed for live chaos. It is the kind of track that detonates a pit in seconds.

4. In the Polder They Reek:

This song balances brute force with melody, leaving space for commanding vocals and precise drumming. It churns and pulses before opening into one of the album’s few guitar solos. The final riff was written in the studio and inspired by a week of listening to Crowbar. It lands with the weight of a knockout punch and invites every variety of pit action.

5. Resinous Drip of Decay:

The first track completed for the album began life during sessions for the Ergotism EP. A Bolt Thrower Halloween cover made the band rethink their approach to harmonies, layering guitars for a massive yet simple sound. Lyrically, it delivers a furious critique of capitalism’s destruction of the environment. It is the sound of living in comfort while watching the planet collapse.

6. Dissolved in Lye (Down to Rot):

This one came together in a rush just a week before recording began. Derek brought in the riffs, the band stitched them together in 15 minutes, and Spencer, only a month into drumming duties, wrote his parts in the studio on instinct. The middle section, called the “nightmare zone,” teeters on collapse but never falls apart. The lyrics are pure gore fantasy with self-mutilation, zombies, and vomit. Ridiculous and proud of it.

7. Oozing Pustules:

The band’s first track in Drop A tuning delivers death metal at its heaviest and most primal. Half the album remains in Drop B, but the lower tuning gave slower riffs more impact. The inspiration was as real as it was grotesque. John’s camping trip in Colombia ended with black fly bites that oozed pus for days, a scene that translated perfectly into death metal imagery.

8. Gatling Gun:

A full-force tribute to Bolt Thrower, this track fires off anthemic riffs and battlefield pacing. It was the first song Spencer learned with the band and remains his favorite. Written in 2024 but even more relevant in the political mess of 2025, it aims squarely at fascists and closes the album with pure fight-ready energy.