Fulci – Duck Face Killings

Heavy metal bands from the early 70s (Black Sabbath) to nowadays’ numerous, death metal acts in particular, have always had this fascination for a horror and gore movies. Here’s also where Fulci comes in, named after the Italian horror icon, Lucio Fulci. Currently the band consists of; Dome Diego (guitar), Fiore Stravino (vocals), Ando Ferraiulo (guitar), Klem Diglio (bass) and Edo Nicoloso (drums).

Duck Face Killings is the fourth highly-anticipated LP from these five fanatics from Italy. Already by looking at the cover art it immediately becomes pretty clear that everything around this opus is in a reference to the movie, ‘The New York Ripper’ from 1982, directed by Lucio Fulci. The core of the music is basically brutal death metal, but also with some deviations and unexpected elements, best exemplified on “Knife” where they have a horror-core guest rapper, Lord Goat. That was definitely unexpected and a move that kinda comes out of the blue, but I respect their courage to try new things. Apart from rap vocals, dark and wailing jazz saxophone (in the closing “II Miele Del Diavolo”), a few intros and interludes, on Duck Face Killings this quintet unleashes a barrage of captivating grusome riffs, pummeling drums, groovy bass, low-pitched and guttural vocals, numerous breakdowns and some pinch harmonics.

The album opens with “Vile Butchery” featuring a sample from the aforementioned film. Then follows a little synth interlude “A Blade in the Dark”, before the first real death metal assaults strike with the painfully titled, “Fucked with a Broken Bottle.” It has this general classic 90s catchy death metal vibe, with a reference to bands like Immolation and Monstrosity. Their death metal strike continues on the following two tracks; starting with “Morbid Lust” (with its galloping rhythm and and some melodeath riffs) and the following high-speed, “Maniac Unleashed”, before we have a complete turn with the aforementioned “Knife”. Meanwhile my personal favorite comes in “Rotten Apple” (listen below) featuring some prominent slammy riffs and mouth-breathing old-school death metal heaviness.

To sum up; songwriting is not the most original nor exciting, but there’re this special aura and some twists and suprising sections to make Duck Face Killings at the end a pretty effective and respectable record. Due to the short nature of the songs (with 14 tracks on playing time of only 33 minutes!), there’s no room for boredom here. I’m not sure if Fulci are capable of getting new fans with the release of Duck Face Killings, but those who were fans before will definitely like this new album too.

For fans of Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Duying Fetus, Monstrosity, Immlation, Mortician, Bolt Thrower and similar brutal scene giants.

If interested for further information on this 14-tracker record from Fulci then visit https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/duck-face-killings