Death metal band names inspire reflection

What’s in a name?

Lots of shredded corpses, in this case.

When it comes to awesomely over-the-top band monikers, few genres of music can compete with death metal.

Granted, it’s all but impossible to actually comprehend said names considering the indecipherable band logos favored in the scene.

Nevertheless, having a killer handle, literally, is a must in death metal and a big part of the music’s gore-soaked fun.

To wit: Just check out the implausibly savage lineup for this year’s Las Vegas Death Fest, which kicks off Thursday at the LVCS and runs through Saturday with more than 50 brutal bands from around the world.

It’s the festival’s most impressive array of acts yet, and, in the spirit of the occasion, we reached to a few of these bands to learn what inspired their gag-reflex-inducing names and sound.

Band: Composted (Boston)

How did you come up with your name?: “It’s simple, it refers to my favorite choice of cadaver disposal and no one else had already used it. We were almost called Critical Pickle. I think we made the right choice.”

How do you want people to react to your name?: “Although I expect most people to think we’re gardening enthusiasts, we would like people to consider Composted to be synonymous with happiness, sunshine, Bill Cosby, tasty riffs, hot licks and thick grooves.”

How do you describe your band’s sound?: “Outside observers have penned us as ‘The Mr. Bungle of death metal,’ ‘reverse-psychology slam death metal,’ ‘avant-slam,’ ‘ballistics-grade slam’ and ‘masters of absurdist extremes.’” — Mark Richards, singer-guitarist.

Band: Amputated Genitals (Bogota, Colombia)

How do you want people to react to your name?: “We wanted people to react to the name same as they would react to our music, so we decided to name the band Amputated Genitals as a representation of human perversities and sick-minded freaks who have been practicing the amputation long before our music came across.”

How do you describe your band’s sound?: “Our goal is to put out this type of topic to show people how sick and perverse human beings could be, how far they are willing to go to satisfy their own perverse feelings.” — Daniel Paz, guitarist.

Band: Cerebral Incubation (Las Vegas)

How do you want people to react to your name?: “We want people to spew in a cup when they hear us, then drink the spew that they just spewed because of how much they love it.”

How do you describe your band’s sound?: “Think of the sexiest, most brilliant thing you can ever imagine — (it’s) the exact opposite. Brutal slamming death metal.” — Mark Candelas, guitarist.

Band: Sadistic Butchering (Houston)

How did you come up with your name?: “I came up with the name by being a butcher for the last 15 years. So Sadistic Butchering just fell right into place.”

How do you want people to react to your name?: “When people hear or see the name I want them to feel a sort of shock and terror.”

How do you describe your band’s sound?: “Brutal slamming technical death metal from Texas.” — John Hull, singer-guitarist-bassist-drum programming.

Band: Delusional Parasitosis (Michigan/Germany/China)

How did you come up with your name?: “Delusional Parasitosis is a psychological disorder where the victim suffers from the delusion that insects are crawling on them or that they’re infested with some sort of parasites. Some go as far as to scrape their own skin off. We thought it would make a pretty brutal and somewhat different name.”

How do you describe your band’s sound?: “Fast drumming, fast riffs, some odd time signatures, in parts, and a lot of slams.” — James Shuster, singer.

Band: Gorgasm (Lafayette, Ind.)

How did you come up with your name?: “Simple. We sing about sex and violence.”

How do you want people to react to your name?: “We want people to think that when they hear us and read the lyrics, well, that the name fits the content.”

How do you describe your band’s sound? “Sounds like blast filled brutal death metal, crazy vocal attacks, and a little classical melody here and there.” — Kyle Christman, drummer

Band: Lust of Decay (Kings Mountain, N.C.)

How did you come up with your name?: “We just threw some names around and mixed and matched until we had decided that Lust of Decay was an original enough name that no one else would have. Plus, it had a cool meaning of ‘desiring dead things,’ which went well with the whole death metal ideal.”

How do you want people to react to your name?: “We wanted the name to reflect the music we love, and we love death metal, so to us, Lust of Decay was a quite fitting name.”

How do you describe your band’s sound?: “Brutal.” — Brent Williams, drummer

Band: Extinctionist (Chemnitz/Dresden, Germany)

How did you come up with your name?: “The idea of the name is that it tells you that the world would be much better without humans. And that’s the philosophy and the topic of our songs, to terminate, kill, torture humans in any kind of ways.”

How do you describe your band’s sound?: “We include and combine a lot of fast blast beats and groove parts, but we also have a touch of technical and progressive parts. The vocals are pretty deep and were made without any effects.” — Mitch, guitarist.

Band: Sexual Atrocities (Milwaukee)

How did you come up with your name?: “We used to be called Screaming Afterbirth, but had to change the name. It then became a running gag to come up with a new name under the stipulation that it was something (abbreviated) ‘S.A.’ Long story short, we settled on Sexual Atrocities because it had a nice ring to it.”

How do you want people to react to your name?: “With a shot of whiskey, a beer bong and, most importantly, a sense of humor.” — Josh Bodi, guitarist.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow on Twitter @JasonBracelin.