Pungent Stench

Though short-lived, Pungent Stench attained a substantial cult following in the early '90s with their undoubtedly perverse style of splatter metal: a brutal quantity of grindcore extremity, death metal songwriting, exorbitant vocal growling, and the most disturbing lyrics imaginable. Alongside other splatter metal groups such as early Carcass, Cannibal Corpse, and Macabre, this Vienna, Austria, trio garnered an audience that developed a near fetish for anything the group released. Due to their cult status, the group's label, Nuclear Blast, was able to churn out a large amount of output, resulting in a purposefully complicated canon of work, where albums and songs were released, suddenly put out of print, then just as suddenly re-released in repackaged fashion. In the end, after the group released their third, final, and best full-length album, Club Mondo Bizarre, it became clear over time that part of the group's uncanny allure was not so much their music but rather their twisted image, part crafted by the band's perverse imagination, part crafted by Nuclear Blast's exploitative marketing. A trio consisting of Martin Schirenc (vocals/guitar), Jacek Perkowski (bass), and Alex Wank (drums), Pungent Stench formed in 1988, resulting in an early demo tape, Mucous Secretion, and a second demo tape, Extreme Deformity, which was ultimately released as the group's first EP in 1989. After circulating around the burgeoning European underground death metal scene at the end of the '80s, these infamous demos (along with a split-LP with Disharmonic Orchestra) caused a considerable amount of interest in the mysterious group, eventually leading to a deal with the high-profile German label Nuclear Blast, which would guarantee a broad distribution reach not only across the European...