EPK – Foetal Juice – Grotesque (2023) (Gore House Productions)

EPK – Foetal Juice – Grotesque (2023) (Gore House Productions)

Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com

Band: Foetal Juice
Album Title: Grotesque
Release Date: November 17, 2023
Label: Gore House Productions

“Everything seems to have worked amazingly on “Grotesque.” It turned out far better than we ever imagined it would. Everyone has brought their A-game to the table with this one. Then Chris Fielding (Producer) put the cherry on the top with the outstanding mixing/mastering. He really has made this album sound incredible.

Due to the lockdowns during Covid, Ryan, who is the main songwriter/Guitarist, has churned out hundreds of riffs and song ideas, which has meant we could be a lot more selective with choosing the final ideas than we would normally be able to. This has really helped us to find the best riffs and ideas to use on this album.

We always write the next song as if it has to be better than the last song we have written. This really pushes us to impress one another when it comes to our individual parts.

When we recorded the last album, Lewis had only been in the band for 2 months and pretty much had to copy the guitar parts with his bass lines. On Grotesque, he has really come into his own. The bass lines have added so much to each song as it’s not just the same as the guitar riffs.

With Foetal Juice, we push each other as far as we can to get the best out of each member. This is mainly because individually, we are all really difficult to impress, so when we have to impress one another, it really takes you to the next level of performance/writing.

We are so proud of everything about this album, from the artwork and songwriting to the performance, recording, and mastering. Even if no one likes it like we do, we can all hold our heads up high with this one.” – Foetal Juice

For fans of Deicide, Vomitory, Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Cannibal Corpse

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“it is rare for a genre this ingrained to be played straight with such eagerness and unrelenting energy, and that alone puts Foetal Juice ahead of the pack.” – 4/5 –  Angry Metal Guy

“Gluttony shows us FOETAL JUICE at their fastest, heaviest and most aggressive. They’ve taken the fire and surging adrenaline of their live shows and have harnessed that power and it’s been manifested into their sophomore record. Full of grit and gristle that will not be for everybody, but if you fancy some gloriously grotesque death metal, look no further and indulge yourself in a bit of filth.” 9/10 –  Distorted Sound Mag

“When the band says that they are at the top of their game and the album is death metal from the top tier, more capable of taking on the biggest names in the genre – and winning, it not just shallow brag. It’s completely true.” –  The Razors Edge

“The punishment for gluttony is to be forced fed rats, snakes and toads. Foetal Juice make you swallow something far more repulsive.” – Moshville Times

“Dragging death metal kicking and screaming back to its putrid past (i.e. the late 80’s / early 90’s), the deviants in Manchester’s Foetal Juice deliver nothing but the finest old-school onslaught on their second album, Gluttony. Gorging on the very life-force of death metal’s founding fathers means that Foetal Juice share an undeniable kinship with the likes of Cannibal Corpse (think Bloodthirst era) and Master (circa On the Seventh Day god Created …Master) as they steadfastly go about their barbaric business. That is to say that Foetal Juice take the tastiest chunks of these bands and re-form them into a meaty platter of modern sounding death metal with an old-school twist.” – Worship Metal

Music Placements:
Foetal Juice did a program for Channel 4 in the UK called “Mark Franis’s Big Day Out” which was about a famous posh guy having different nights out with different underground music scenes in the UK. Foetal Juice were the Death Metal band chosen for that. 

[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]

Band: Foetal Juice
Album Title: Grotesque
Release Date: November 17, 2023
Label: Gore House Productions

Track Listings:
1. Human Beach Master (3:50)
2. Mountain of Gore (3:10)
3.: Legion of the Grotesque (4:45)
4. Ghoul Amongst the Mouldering Dead (3:37)
5. Two Bongs Don’t Make a Right (1:26)
6. Cunt of the Litter (3:19)
7. Cemetery Leachate (4:39)
8. The Walking Groin (3:35)
9. Torn Apart (3:30)
10. F. K. E. O (3:59)
11. Gruesome (5:10)
Album Length: 41:06

Album Credits:
All Songs performed by: Foetal Juice
All songs written by: Foetal Juice
Produced by: Chris Fielding
Mixed by: Chris Fielding
Mastered by: Chris Fielding
Album Artwork by: Misathropic Art

Band Line Up:
Ryan Whittaker – Guitars
Rob Harris – Drums
Derek Carley – Vocals
Lewis Bridges – Bass

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About The Album Artwork:

We wanted artwork that showed the desperation of humankind. We wanted the face to look like he was truly disappointed in what humanity has become. A kind of anxiety-ridden depression that has made him rip his own face off. The creatures in the background are the thoughts and troubles in his mind and all of these have made him want to kill himself. He has no weapons, so he has to do it with his own hands.

You know, a really happy-go-lucky album cover.

About the album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):

We wanted to create something that was incredibly violent both musically and lyrically, but we also wanted to capture the “Foetal Juice Groove” and black humor we have used throughout our careers. We really wanted to push our abilities as far as we could with this one by introducing speeds and techniques we haven’t used in the past. I think overall we have accomplished this and even added other elements such as the intro to the last song. It’s a route we have never taken before but it has turned out really well. We are very happy with the results.

Track by Track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):

1: Human Beach Master – Musically we are always a fan of the first track Vader does on their albums, with stabs and fills to really grab your attention. We thought we should start with a ferocious one that uses these elements to grab the listeners’ attention. Also, silence is a really good method to do this too. That’s why we decided to leave 4 bars of silence before it actually kicks in. We wanted to set a tone for the album with this one, so it needed to be ferocious throughout. Lyrically this is about Those big fat bastards who take their tops off to fight, making them look like Beach Masters (Walrus’) fighting in a David Attenborough documentary – So, it’s pretty much a description of that happening. Two massive human Walrus’ fighting for the attention of a woman who couldn’t give a shit.

2: Mountain of Gore – We wanted to change a few things up on this album and include some slower, groovier sections than we have before. The intro to the song is a result of that. Groovy drums over a simple riff. Then once the intro is over, we jump straight into an aggressive stab and attach technique which brings you into the song nicely. The style for this one is more Exhumed and Impaled influenced with rabid drum fills everywhere. I think this one includes one of the fastest bomb blasts on the album too. It is a really groovy bouncy song throughout to keep a crowd energized at live performances.

Lyrically it’s about two disgusting people shagging.

3: Legion of the Grotesque – This song was inspired by our love of Angel Corpse. Our guitarist wrote a riff that we loved so we thought “Why does it need to move to the next section every 4 bars?” So, we stay on the same riff for longer than we normally would with other elements of the song changing around it. Again, it’s something new that we have tried for this album, and for me at least, it works really well. We’ve thought it needed breaking up with something less blast-beaty in the middle as it has a lot of constant blasting in this one.

Lyrics – It’s about the legion of people who overuse cosmetic surgery and turn themselves into something disgusting. Botched Botox essentially. There are more and more of them these days so we thought it would be a good subject for us to delve into.

4: Ghoul Amongst the Mouldering Dead – This is the one we all enjoy playing the most. That’s the reason it is our main single. If we all enjoy it, it must be good. Right? Again inspired by groovy gore bands with a really good live bounce to it throughout. It’s at a really nice speed to play without too much exertion too. Our guitarist has worked on the running riffs quite a lot to make them sound complex enough without turning it too melodic. For the middle section, we wanted to make it really heavy for the headbangers at shows. Something for everyone in the crowd to enjoy, even the miserable cunt at the back with their arms crossed.

Lyrically this is a lot more serious than the others. It’s about the soldiers in the First World War who were stuck in no man’s land having to eat the flesh of the dead to survive.

5: Two Bongs Don’t Make a Right – Sometimes we think we are leaving our grindy roots behind and going into a more death metal direction. So, with this one we thought we should create a minute and a half grind song without many riffs. It’s also designed to be a good ending to side A of vinyl with an abrupt ending.

Lyrically it’s just about our singer not being able to smoke as much weed as he used to be able to and having a whitey.

6: Cunt of the Litter – We have tried to go groovy again with this song and avoid the ferocious blasting that some of the others have. It’s very much designed to make people want to fight each other at our live shows with the heavy middle sections. Very Cannibal Corpse influenced.

Lyrically it’s about the little arsehole in a group of pricks (in the UK we call them Scallies/Chavs). The one that is always shouting and starting fights with everyone. It’s always the smallest one with short man syndrome for some reason much like the smallest dog in the litter, the runt of the litter (just one letter makes all the difference). It’s about how that guy should never have been born.

7: Cemetery Leachate – This was one of the first songs we wrote for this album. The best way to crack a song off (in my opinion) is to have a good set of stabs with the cymbals and riff. In this song, we come back to that stabbing reference again and again as it’s a really good breakup technique. It’s been influenced by heavier bands like Motorhead and Malignant Tumor as they have these really groovy heavy simple riffs that get you moving. That heavy groove section is sandwiched in by blasting on either side.

Lyrically – Cemetery Leachate is basically the juice that comes from dead bodies as they decay. So this is just describing how disgusting that is really.

8: The Walking Groin – This is another one we wrote earlier in the session for this album. We have used the same stabbing technique as mentioned earlier with influences from the stabbing which bands like Aborted and Vader do quite a lot. The way to really knuckle down and start writing this album as we meant to go on.

Lyrically this is about the type of sleezy guy that we all know who thinks he is amazing. He makes women feel like shit by being super sleazy and leaching onto them all the time. A male chauvinist pig/slag who believes he is above everyone else when he is in fact a piece of shit.

9: Torn Apart – We ventured down a more Obituary-influenced slower death metal with this one. Loads of quick open E on slower riffs. Then the middle section really takes off into a feeding frenzy. Very violent blasting and fills.

Lyrically this is more of your bog-standard death meat and potatoes, does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s about someone being torn apart.

10: F. K. E. O – This stand for “Fucking Kill Each Other” It was a phrase that our singer came out with randomly at the biggest gig we have played to date (Bloodstock Festival – Main Stage). It’s a phrase that made us laugh because most bands tell the fans to “look after each other in the pit” etc. But he turned around and told them all to “Fucking Kill Each Other!” Because of that, we needed the music to be a good backing for a fight (as per usual). That is why we have got the aggressive Slayer-influenced ride 8’s stomp going on in the middle. Then we built the song around that, to be honest.

Lyrically, again it’s exactly what it says on the tin. It’s about fucking killing each other.

11: Gruesome – This one is where we have really experimented with a clean intro. This is something we have never done before but really enjoyed it when bands like Entombed have done it on albums. The clean intro is influenced by the film Lobster Man From Mars and we just thought it would be good to try a build a song up like that for one. After the intro we wanted it to go straight in as abrupt as we could make it. So, 6/8 blast it was. We wanted the song to be a sort of one after the intro but also make it incredibly groovy with skipping triplets on the guitars and a wandering bass. We are really happy with how this song turned out.

Lyrically this is meat and potatoes for super.

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Fun Facts – Story Angles

1. The name Foetal Juice is obviously a pun on the film Beetle Juice. This band name came from us being very young and very drunk. We wanted a name that stood out in the Death Metal community. Most bands were named after a disease or another band’s song. We didn’t want that for us. Foetal Juice was the first name we came up with which made us all laugh and the first one we agreed on, so we kept it. We use the English spelling of the word “Foetal” because we are English, not American, where they would spell it “Fetal.”

Please don’t ask us “What happens if we say Foetal Juice 3 times” – The answer is we aren’t interested in your interview anymore.

2. We have always been a Death Metal band. We take influences from other genres such as Grind, Black Metal, Gore, etc. but we have always taken our main influence from early death metal bands such as Entombed, Deicide, Vomitory, Death, Cannibal Corpse, etc. We do not really have any association with Slam, even though we sometimes get put under that umbrella. I think that is mainly to do with the name though.

3. Foetal Juice was featured on the Channel 4 program, “Mark Francis – Big Night Out” as the Death Metal band for his Death Metal night out. It’s not something we particularly wanted to do. We just thought that we needed to take a bullet for the Death Metal community. Mainly because, if we didn’t do it, it would have been done by a way more cringy “METAL” band who would make Death Metal look ridiculous on TV as per usual. At least we know we don’t act like pricks.

4. Lyrically we lean more towards what has pissed us off within human society. Then we just add our normal humour to it, which is heavily influenced by dark old English humour such as League of Gentlemen and Brass Eye.

5. Although it might not seem it, we are always trying to be serious so that we get taken more seriously as a death metal band. The problem is that as soon as one of us says a funny alternative to what we have planned, we always go down that route. That’s why songs such as Human Beach Master and Cunt of the Litter exist.

(L-R): Lewis Bridges (Bass), Derek Carley (Vocals), Ryan Whittaker (Guitar), Rob Harris (Drums)

Photo Credit – Karen Carley