Vegas music hits sharpest notes

Dead bodies and B-sides: Welcome to the latest roundup of Vegas music releases:

GUTTURAL SECRETE, “Nourishing the Spoil” (facebook.com/gutturalsecreteofficial): It’s been seven years since the last putrid blast from Guttural Secrete, and from the sound of it, these dudes have whiled away the time locked in their rehearsal room, subsisting on Red Bull and fistfuls of raw meat ripped from the corpse of temperance.

Sharpening the teeth on their brutal death metal with a much more pronounced technical edge, “Nourishing the Spoil” overwhelms with manic yet precise riffing, a tireless drum fusillade and frontman Blue Jensen’s upchucked vocals, which are suggestive of a centaur battling acid reflux disease. “Deadened Prior to Coitus,” sure to be a karaoke favorite for years to come, exemplifies the band’s refined approach, with swarming guitars and duck-and-cover velocity levels giving way to a fierce midtempo groove, rendering the tune equally concussive and catchy. Don’t let the grosser-than-thou song titles fool you, there’s a sense of humor here .

BLACK CAMARO, “B-Sides & C-Sides Vol. 2” (black camaro.bandcamp.com): They sing of pedophiles and the true nature of existence, of being a crappy teen and of the joys of sleeping past noon, waking up and cooking bacon in the nude.

If Black Camaro’s lyrics seem born of free association — and/or beer — their sound tends to follow suit. Not that they have an easy-to-pinpoint sound to begin with, which is what makes the band feel so consistently fresh, even after more than a decade of existence. Their albums are like a really great jukebox on shuffle, alive with myriad disparate influences, the cohesion coming from the high-level of execution rather than a unified aesthetic.

And so, save for a trio of live cuts, a demo track and a studio goof, this assortment of previously unreleased material could almost pass as a new album from the band. It’s hard to imagine the radiant harmonies of “Afternoon Man,” the effervescent synth blasts of “Lemonade” or the equally sardonic and stirring “I’m An American, Man,” being left off prior releases because they weren’t up to snuff. Rather, they just must not have fit in anywhere.

But that raises the question, what doesn’t fit on a Black Camaro album? And therein lies the beauty of the band. Anything goes here, as evidenced by the raw throated snarl of “Kill Somebody and S!@#,” which segues into the dreamy, wistful waltz “Hold on to Your Baby Now .”

“Whatever I give, it’s not enough,” frontman Brian Garth sings on the latter tune, this collection belying that sentiment.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.