Guts, Gore, and Growls: Six bands turn The Nile Underground into a Death Metal Hellscape at Brutal Bash 2.0

Nuclear Remains guitarist Anthony Fazio and vocalist and bassist Aiden Santelli performing in The Nile Underground in Mesa, AZ on February 21, 2025. Photographed by Justin de la Cruz.

Whatever depraved, vile, and degenerate thoughts you’ve ever imagined, there’s a good chance they do not come anywhere close to the deplorable imagery of brutal death metal lyrics.

Unless you’re a fan of the genre yourself. 

Bands from California, Texas, and Arizona turned The Nile Underground into an audial torture basement for the second installment of Brutal Bash. NUCLEAR REMAINS and NECROTIC INFIBULATION return from last year’s lineup, while new additions such as DESANGUIGATE, DIVULSIVE, INTESTINAL SODOMY, and REGURGITATED ENTRAILS joined in for a night of gut-wrenching brutal death metal.

Gurgling at the microphone and giving the audience tonal whiplash first was DESANGUIGATE, celebrating the release of their debut self-titled EP: an 11-minute serving of ballistic tech death metal. Each group that came on got more indecipherable and much nastier by the minute with DIVULSIVE talking about dicing up limbs like they’re in Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen on the song “Alleyway for Human Disposal.” They ended their set playing a song they have yet to name properly. DIVULSIVE drummer NATE GONZALEZ would be seen with different bands throughout the night continuing with guest vocals with INTESTINAL SODOMY. The band logos became increasingly indecipherable and the song titles got more vulgar with each passing band, with INTESTINAL SODOMY having a song called “Female Genitalia Mutilation” in their catalog. 

NECROTIC INFIBULATION began their set with a song about ripping your penis off with barbed wire and did not let up on the comically gruesome themes. At one point, a random audience member heckled them to play “Spongebob,” and the guitarist played two seconds of STEVE BELFER’s iconic twangs before switching to play the song “Grotesque.”

Members of DIVULSIVE, NECROTIC INFIBULATION, and INTESTINAL SODOMY joined together like a zombified Megazord to perform as REGURGITATED ENTRAILS. Their combined strengths made for a chaotic stew of degenerate jams, such as the song “Cunt Fuck Ressurection” being a machine gun assault to the eardrums. NATE GONZALEZ once again returned for guest vocals for one song.

Alongside MANNY ROSAS of DIVULSIVE, I hope those dudes got paid overtime. 

DESANGUIGATE were not the only ones celebrating the release of new music, as NUCLEAR REMAINS celebrated the release of their latest EP from NEW STANDARD ELITE, opening their set with “Festered Disfigured Whore.” The group pivoted from the themes of the apocalyptic aftermath of raining ICBMs on their previous album “Dawn of Eternal Suffering” to vicious, inhumane torture on “Heinous Acts of Iniquity”. Their trademark gas masks were still present as a stage decoration, but they opted not to wear them at the beginning of their performance like they used to. I honestly don’t know how they managed to play well wearing it to begin with. Low growls that sound like a monster coming out of a sewer, high demonic shrieks, and rapid tempo switches are what your eardrums should expect in this new chapter of brutality for the rising death metal group. If you’re a fan of HEINOUS KILLINGS and DISGORGE, NUCLEAR REMAINS is not a band to be missed.