Serrated Scalpel, as hinted by the name, is a brutal death metal band. The one thing that I recall from multiple listens to this album is that there isn't much to recall. In fact, if it weren't for some movie samples inserted before some tracks (from such movies as Vendetta, The Matrix, They Live, American Psycho, and The Thirteenth Warrior), I would be able to tell this album from a plethora of other albums in the same genre. The sound is a bit muffled at times, the vocals are deep guttural growls (they "I'm puking the lyrics" variety), and the music is essentially your usual brutal death, well done, but done so many times before... Really whenever I listen to an album like this, at the end I can't help but wonder "what's the point?"
I was however surprised when I read the lyrics. I was expecting the usual childish gore crap that plagues so many brutal death metal albums, but instead found something into which the band seems to have put a lot of work in. It's gory, it's sadistic, brutal, and reading it you feel like you're in a war zone. A lot of bands fail writing for such a subject matter and fall into the childish retarded crap, but Serrated Scalpel sure have done their homework lyric-wise. Of course it's hard to tell just from the vocals, so grab that booklet and read it. A little note on the cover art, which seems to depict a desolated war zone, very fitting with the mood of the lyrics.
It is really the lyrics that save this album from a lower rating. The guys know how to play their instruments, but their music will have to steer away from this over-charted territory for them to become noticeable.