Deceased - Children of the Morgue (2024)

Though I don't find myself listening to their first few records as often as I'd like, Fearless Undead Machines and all of the Deceased full-lengths beyond 1997 are regular staples in my listening rotation, ESPECIALLY around Halloween season where their tales of cult horror truly resonate. Queue the King Diamond, the Samhain, early Danzig, the Rob Zombie (laugh all you want), the Cradle of Filth, a whole lotta death metal and creepier atmospheric black metal, and then Virginia's finest for me. I didn't notice a strong reaction abroad to their latest, Children of the Morgue, but I was smitten as soon as I saw the collage of creepy dolls that make up the cover art, I knew we were going to those DVD/VHS racks and pulling out all the stops, so I turned the lights down, grabbed my popcorn and pressed PLAY.

In King Fowley I trust, for good reason, because Children of the Morgue is the same classy-as-fuck blend of heavy, speed, thrash and death metal that I've been loving for nearly 30 years. It doesn't ascend to the same heights as a Supernatural Addiction or Surreal Overdose, and you could argue that it plays it safe within those already-broadened margins of their sound, but Deceased is about songwriting consistency, and blending together the right level of atmosphere complementary to the themes with the classic metal across numerous genres that inspires them. So you'll get some dim, moody acoustics, cleaner narrated vocals from King, a lot that actually makes you feel like you're actually watching an obscure horror flick ("Terrornaut", for example), and it all blends seamlessly with the riffing variety, which ranges from the more melodic and welcoming to some of the old dissonance of The 13 Frightened Souls or Blueprints.

King has shifted more comfortably into his vocal role, which still sounds as great at it has on the last 7-8 albums. This allows Amos Rifkin to dominate the kit, on which he does a great job keeping in Fowley's down to earth style, maybe packing in a little more muscle. The riffs rarely disappoint, and even the less catchy ones feel like they're coming straight out of the Deceased playbook, while the leads maintain that memorable, workmanlike authenticity. Never too flashy, but fulfilling enough, with melancholic twists to them that suit the overall attitude of the recording. Children of the Morgue is clean, but they keep the instruments just raw enough in the mix that it doesn't suffer from polish that would leech away its underground aesthetics. It's a damn good album, and I like it as much as its predecessor Ghostly White, but it just happens that they've got four albums I enjoy even more. Still, if an album this good is the 'floor' of what they're capable of for the last couple decades...well, that's why they are one of our best American metal bands going today. Integrity in spades.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/deceasedofficial/

Celestial Sanctuary - Insatiable Thirst for Torment (2023)

Celestial Sanctuary came onto my radar with their 2021 debut Soul Diminished, it had some pretty distinctive artwork and fit right in with that death metal resurgence of bands like Tomb Mold, Cerebral Rot, Undeath, and Creeping Death, all cultivating old school sounds and then evolving them ever so slightly to become something refreshing. While that debut had a pretty solid, roiling, atmospheric production, Insatiable Thirst for Torment definitely operates with more clarity and maturity, not exactly changing up the style but delivering it in a way that might have more crossover appeal to a wider swath of the death metal audience. This is hardly novel stuff, the riff-set and general style reflect a plethora of influences, largely a twist on the Floridian death metal of yesteryear, but it's very well executed.

This is also measured stuff. The band can fire up the blasting speed when necessary, but they prefer to take their time and let you lay into a moderately paced groove. However, it's never stupid or simple, they will festoon the thicker rhythm riffs with squeals, atmospheric lead spikes, and all matter of variation in cuts like "Glutted with Chunder" or "Swivel Eyed and Gurning in the Shadow". Oh yes, the titles, these are some fairly literate gore hounds, but fear not, your scrubs will still be caked with blood by the time the double kick and blast of "Gutted with a Blunt Blade" resolves and you are permitted to escape. The drums are concise and killer, the bass has a nice fat tone to it, and the vocals are brutally restrained but always offer you that feel like they are being torn straight from the gut. Celestial Sanctuary is also unafraid to implement some atmospherics, like the gorgeous wailing that opens "Meandering Stream of Foul Fluid" or the tectonic, spacious doom dissonance in "Unquenchable Thirst...".

Pretty top shelf material from a band that knows how take simpler, choppier rhythms and then adorn them with enough character and atmosphere that they'll punch well above where you'd expect. It helps that the mix is phenomenal, you can really hear all these ingredients firing back and forth at you through your speakers while the central heaviness persists. It's not so catchy that I find myself thinking about it between listens, but when Insatiable Thirst for Torment is actually being pumped into my ears, I find it's another one that can fully captivate me. An easy recommendation if you're into any of the bands I listed above, or the heavier Blood Incantation stuff, or Vastum, Ulthar, or you want something to honor the legacy of groups like Morbid Angel, Incantation, and the like.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://celestialsanctuary.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-stagnant-blood-2

Sacrilegion - From Which Nightmares Crawl (2022)

From Which Nightmares Crawl is a gem of a death metal record that must have passed me by initially; likely sitting in my promo folder and I just couldn't get around to it for a year or so after. The stunning cover art from John Quevedo Janssens heralds its opaque, abyssal sound quite well, and once into the music we're eviscerated by a choppy, semi-technical attack that seems to thread together inspiration from bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide and Vader, but never conforming too closely to any of them. I also felt like there was a dash of darker melodic death metal coursing through this, but rendered so diabolical that it would be unrecognizable from most of the Swedish precursors, and a pretty good comparison is Germany's Sulphur Aeon, although more on their death metal side.

Ultimately, though, this was a pretty damn good debut that clearly deserved more attention than it got, with a fully developed and advanced style that ticks a lot of boxes. Gruesome gutturals that are often punctuated or accented with snarls, sometimes a little overbearing as you'd hear in more modern death or deathcore stuff, but really well structured alongside the riffing. That, though, the riffing, is the star of the show for me...evil, clinical hybrid of surging death metal and slicing, saturated death/thrash tempos, churning and chopping constantly, from spurts of tremolo-picked madness to dissonance banks of chords that feel like you're undergoing surgery on the deepest layers of the conflagration. There's always some sort of darker harmony or twisted melodic death/thrash lick that emerges and gets your head nodding amidst all the more intense battery, which is anchored down by a thundering, turbulent, blasting drum performance. You can hear some bass curving beneath the riff-storm but it does blend in somewhat.

Sacrilegion also has some good lyrical qualities, even in song titles like "A Terrible Pilgrimage to Seek the Nighted Throne", "Transfixed in Spiral Ambiguity" or "The Hollow Blue Eyes of Yomi at Twilight", there's a little more intellectual sophistication than you might be expecting, and it translates well onto the music, which is practiced and certainly not primitive, but never overly technical or self-indulgent. The consistent breaks to more melodic riffs help balance out the choking darkness of the album's themes, especially in the depths of "Legacy of the Impaler" and From Which Nightmares Crawl just has that range and capacity to provided the well-rounded sort of death metal experience I am always seeking out. Intensity and restraint in equal measures, really listenable and I'm excited to hear whatever a sophomore album will sound like.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://sacrilegion.bandcamp.com/album/from-which-nightmares-crawl

Fondlecorpse - Dark Contagion (2017)

Dark Contagion is the sophomore full-length outing from Dutch death metallers Fondlecorpse, who released a record some years before it that was notable for the myriad horror movie references in the artwork. As with Creaturegore, this album is an exhibition in chunky death metal with memorable artwork, however it has some differences from its predecessor in that they're not simply cooking up nostalgia, but trying to take a more structured approach. The song titles still sound like a plethora of horror/sci-fi B-movies: "Terrorvision", "Bugstomper", "The Mutant Chronicles" and "Lunar Cycle Maniac", so it's not like they've abandoned the themes that inspired them, but this is not at all a sillier sounding effort within the genre, it's much more well-rounded.

Perhaps part of that is that the core member, vocalist Silvester 'The Goregnome" has recruited the insanely prolific Rogga Johansson for the guitars this time, a guy who makes the whole genre seem like old hate, as he literally brushes his teeth with death metal, butters his death metal for breakfast. With a focused role as he has on Dark Contagion, he delivers a bevy of churning, hammering riffs which aren't terribly different than what he's performing in Revolting or Ribspreader, but in support of the Goregnome's gruesome, drawn out growls. This record kicks hard with its great Swedish guitar tone, thick and pumpkin bass lines, and Rogga also likes to spit forth these simplistic, almost melancholic leads that work well as a contrast against the meaty charge of the rhythms. I definitely get some vibes of Cannibal Corpse or Severe Torture, only not as complex as those two can occasionally get, with the lower octave chords and the percussive marriage of the brute vocals and riffs.

But those airy, sad little leads, the use of samples, and the overall aesthetic definitely hearken more to that whole Razorback scene of bands, or also that West cost 'fun' death metal stuff from the US. Crypticus, Blood Revolt, Splatterhouse, Frightmare, Ghoul, Cannabis Corpse. Fondlecorpse might not conform to strictly to any one of their sounds, but they belong in the same conversation, a self-awareness and deep love of genre capitalized upon by good performances of quality musicians. Dark Contagion is not an album that stands to win any accolades for its genre, but if you're into death metal without pretention or excess polish, you can take this one off the shelf, pop it into your CD player and have a pretty good time listening through it.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://fondlecorpse.bandcamp.com/music

Sepulchral - Beneath the Shroud (2025)

There are a bunch of sepulcher/sepulchral bands with similar names that often get confusing for me; this one is Sepulchral from Spain, a death metal act with a very throwback sound that seeks to trace itself back to the proud lineage of the late 80s/early 90s and perhaps put a splash of fresh viscera across the formula. Beneath the Shroud is their sophomore album, a simple, focused and evil affair which eschews nuance and novelty almost entirely to create a largely-upbeat tour of the audience's nostalgia for gruesome vocals, hugely produced riffs, and creepy tales of horrors supernatural and fleshy. They remind me of another Spanish band, Undead, who also have this stripped-down approach to genre, but more for their aesthetic purpose than actually sounding the same in terms of production or songwriting.

There's certainly a little of the ancient Swedish propulsion here from bands like Nihilist, Entombed and Dismember, but also a bit of the more primitive Dutch stuff circa Asphyx. But Beneath the Shroud also has a punky vibe to how its simple chord structures sail along, perhaps more like a slowed death grind as if you were stretching out earlier Napalm Death riffs. It's very often predictable, clubbing along at a safe pace, and lacks atmosphere beyond just the old school vibes that the music creates on its own, but they do address this with some silky smooth leads (at the climax of "Conflagration of Sacred Bones"), or a few doomier riffs like the one that inaugurates "Torchless Crossroads". I personally love the heavy saturation on the guitars, it feels like you are wading through a pool of flesh, while the bass lines are caustic and audible, and the drums give a workmanlike momentum to the raw riffing progressions.

The vocals are a bit blunt and bloody, but certainly resonate well with the music even if they have a few monotonous patterns across the verses. This is about as un-pretentious as you're going to get within the field of death metal, there is nothing progressive or complex or labyrinthine ever, you're going to figure it all out the first journey through the dirt, and how you feel about that is going to inform your reaction to this record. I find it pretty authentic in its pursuit of purity, and liked the grim glazings of the lead guitars and the bands willingness to offer some slower material to contrast the shuffling mid-pace that they usually churn along with. That said, I also found it a little bit too familiar with so much of the death metal I've experienced these last 37-38 years. Riffs that just sort of manifest but never go anywhere interesting. Production and style are already managed well, Sepulchral just needs to flex its creative muscles to compose some darker, more atmospheric stuff, dig down to those deeper graves.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://sepulchraldeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

Exhumed - Beyond the Dead EP (2023)

To the Dead was another darn good album from a band that has yet to fail me, but I wasn't completely in love with the production as I was with the tunes, so it didn't scale the heights of Gore Metal, Slaughtercult, or Death Revenge, some of my favorites. Beyond the Dead is a shorter follow-up, in title and overall aesthetics, with just four studio tracks, some of which might have come out as B-sides or bonus tracks, but all new to me at this time. It definitely rights the ship a little, the mix here just sounds a little more clear and vital to me than its predecessor, and the songs are actually quite good if you're into their post-Carcass brand of thrashing death/grind. All the riffs punch hard, the vocals deliver in their gruesome brute/snarl exchange, the leads are well written and it just has that exciting feel I always get from their records.

One of the tunes, "Septic Five" is a shorter piece, like something off 2019's Horror, so I didn't enjoy that as much as "Lysergicide" or "Rapid Unplanned Disassembly", but it still packs a lot into its minute duration and bangs your head four you. As an added bonus, there are also four live tracks which sound absolutely awesome. I've seen the band (more in their earlier years) and they definitely deliver, but these tunes are taken from across their catalogue and sound super clean without losing the sewage bass-lines, saturated gory tone, lead-work and such. Whether it's "In My Human Slaughterhouse" from the chunky debut, or "Dysmorphic" from Necrocracy, everything is performed as an accurate representation of its studio counterpart and as a worthwhile bone thrown to the fans of one our longest-lasting, consistent USDM bands to emerge in the 90s. I think it's digital-only, at least for now, and I do hope that changes, but if you like their recent records like To the Dead and Death Revenge, you won't be disappointed.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/ExhumedOfficial

Eternal - Cryptic Lust (2024)

Is she summoning the undead forth from their slumber? Is she some sort of banshee who is just inhabiting the same crypt? Why do these things look like skeletons but still have flesh, veins, and some musculature? Are they revenants? Ghouls? So many questions, but one that Arizona's Eternal does answer for us with their first proper full-length review is that they are one badass newer death metal band that drags some old school influences wriggling and hammering into the new age. This one heads straight back to that formative Florida sound pioneered by Death in the later 80s, and then bulks it up at the gym with mightier drumming, denser bass lines, and vocals that go over the top with that early style of Chuck Schuldiner, Martin van Drunen or John Tardy growl.

It's not a 1:1 sort of tribute by any means. Whereas a band like Gruesome is trying to emulate certain albums or eras of its influence, Eternal is just extracting that DNA from the cemetery fossils and then mutating it into their own strain. A Jurassic Park of grisly old punishment that goes hard in using some percussive force to clout the listeners. This does have its faster outbreaks, but it's more about the groove after groove, claustrophobic tightness to the rhythm section but executed with such meaty tones that you really have no prayer of finding a salad anywhere. They excel at the slower-to-mid speeds, where the bass lines are creeping and oozing along in the bottom of your ear canals, they can process these huge crush doom/death riffs in there too like in the bowels of "Torture Chapel", or a rolling sort of groove as in "Spectral Immolation" which reminds one heavily of something like "Where the Slime Live" off Morbid Angel's Domination. There's also something aesthetically Swedish threaded through this, like an added level of armor inspired by Entombed or Dismember but not copying the precise tone.

The intro and interlude are cool, the former a wash of evil organs to herald "Doorway to Tribulation", the latter a more whimsical, almost haunted saloon vibe before the title track explodes. The lead guitars do not always land for me; as frilly, spectral atmospherics they excel, but a few feel like they could have been molded into more evil yet melodic dimensions, rather than sounding a little forced and messy. The riffs can also feel a little samey across a few tracks, but every song has at least a few good ones to offer, so this is a minor flaw that will be hammered out with more experience and variety. All told, Cryptic Lust is an album I'd easily throw out there as a recommendation alongside a Necrot, Extremity, or the earlier Skeletal Remains efforts. Old school in spirit, heavier for the times, digestible but destructive death metal which helps you appreciate where it all first exhumed from thrash. Some versions of this also have a cover of "Deathcrush" by Mayhem, which fits in pretty well though they switch to a more black metal vocal for some of it and I don't know that that was necessary.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://eternalaz.bandcamp.com/album/cryptic-lust

Trog - Horrors Beyond (2024)

With a moniker like Trog, you'd probably expect knuckle dragging, primitive slam death metal, and for short bursts of Horrors Beyond, they have you covered. But in truth, this full-length debut (after a pair of EPs) from the Jersey brutes is surprisingly varied, with something to offer fans of numerous death metal niches. It's definitely rooted in the brutal death metal of the earlier 90s, with clear Cannibal Corpse parallels, but they'll also hurl an unexpected, sticky melody in your direction, or drop out of the burst of violent speed into one of those aforementioned slam grooves which seems primed for the pit. Where it can get punishing and intense, as if you were beating yourself with a brick at high speeds, there is always a solid songwriting structure which makes for a really well balanced listen.

Lots of highlights abound. "Horrors Beyond" itself has this lurching, Morbid Angel-like groove deep in the bridge where this nasty harmonies erupt alongside the vocals while the drums continue to batter along. "Ritual Corpse Division" has some clinical melodies deep in its belly which help offset the roiling double kick rhythms and evil tremolo picked rhythms that alternate into a thrashing gallop. "Eviscerate the Advanced" is highly melodic and glorious before it starts to groove out, and you can hear that bass guitar bouncing off beneath. "Interstellar Offal Dealer" is like Cannibal Corpse meets Bloodbath. The bridge of "Ontological Shock" takes you by surprise with the charging melodic death metal sequence and some synth-lines that work well to accompany it. Not only do they cover such a span of material in a great, compact 33 minute experience, but you get the impression they are only starting to tap into what full potential they have as musicians.

The rhythm tone is murky, saturated but still very clear and choppy, and I mentioned I like the springy sound of the bass, the insane drum performance, but I'd also draw attention to the vocals of Pete Colucci which cover all the bases from formidable, punctual gutturals to protracted snarls and growls. The cover makes this one look a little cheesy (in a good way), but the lyrics here are actually well thought out. They incorporate plenty of the brutal imagery to go along with the performances, but you can tell someone sat down and put some effort into them. Really, what we have here is an impressive USDM band that can hang with a whole lot of better-known peers, and while none of the individual components of this are original by any means, the way they are assembled here is a refreshing, punishing exhibition of well-sculpted carnage.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://trogdeathmetal.bandcamp.com/album/horrors-beyond

Morgue Supplier - Mastering the Disease (2026)

Driven by inhuman, mechanical blasting rhythms that collapse and contrast against its more meandering, atmospheric grooves, Mastering the Disease seems a fit evolution for the previous Morgue Supplier record, Inevitability and its subsequent single tracks. But where its stylistic frame is comparable, there's something even harsher and more 'checked out' sounding about some of this newest material. A collision of death, grind, industrial vibes, even some noticeable progressive elements in the structuring, they really swing for the fences. I'd liken it to a sort of 'cybergrind', only you replace almost all of the futuristic (or at this point, retro futurist) synths and sound effects with loads of dissonant, death metal guitars more central to that genre, and a gruesome vocal exhibition which is actually quite detailed and technical as it's laid out.

A good example of the varied carnage this band can create of its listeners would be "Pupils of Insularity", starting off with a pensive flow, cleaner melodic guitars and thick bass, almost Godflesh-like vibes, which escalates into a head-spinning, dissonant bender that feels like you're testing a drum machine to hear how fast it will go before exploding; all the while the other instruments crash along with abandon and Paul Gillis wretches and sneers and vomits all over the riffing. This is not for the faint of heart, anyone wearing a pacemaker, or anyone retaining a warm view of humanity. Other dizzying tracks include the psychotic "Annihilated Thinker" with its broken beats that descend into strange sampling and drugged, dissonant riffs that ooze around the meat of the distorted bass-lines. "Next World Consumes" is a harrowing endscape soundscape, oppression thicker than concrete, but by the time you hear that you're probably already either dead or suffering a severe headache.

Thankfully, if you DO survive that, the closer is a brilliant dark ambient track, "Indifferent Majesty", which is one of my favorites on the album, even though it's completely different to everything before it. Spacious but intense, it shows the flip side of what these creators are thinking but from an entirely different, non-percussionist perspective. The cover art here also reminds me a lot of the post-modern cyberpunk/body horror film Tetsuo: the Iron Man by Shinya Tsukamoto, and it unquestionably might serve as a sort of aural counterpart to that visual experience. This is the future, here, ugly as fuck, and not what we were hoping. While not as brilliantly riffy as the band's eponymous 2016 album, my favorite, and a little less sublime than Inevitability, Mastering the Disease is still very intense, with just enough devil in the details, especially the myriad abusive vocals and provocative bi-polar shifts between blasting and grooves that litter its debris-ridden labyrinth of noise.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075977500489

Craft - Total Soul Rape (2000)

Craft was such a cool band to see at the turn of the century because they were already playing this retro brand of necro black metal only a decade or less since the originals. The Darkthrone parallels were obvious here, from the black & white photography on the cover to the sound that was heavily reminiscent of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost. That said, they've got plenty of personality unto themselves, with a few creative riffing ideas that they were adding to that legacy, some truly nasty vo-kills and an unapologetically dark and depressive attitude that is on full display throughout the lyrics. The debut Total Soul Rape was my first exposure, and while I enjoyed it to an extent, the years have definitely given me a greater appreciation for its brash charisma.

You've got that fuzzy rhythm guitar tone circa Hellhammer, the difference is that Craft will burst out into these tremolo picked evil riffs or blasted messes that were taken from the earlier second wave stuff. The stuff is pretty saturated, the drums rocking out with a nice crash and clutter to them as the bass lines just churn back and forth below. The vocals have this hideous presence front and center, as I think was the intention, but everything else is also pretty clear and loses no potency against Mikael's formidable rasp. Most of the tracks have this really memorable feature to them, also, like the frilly, whipping leads in "Death to Planet Earth", the climactic dissonant grooving riffs of "(Desolation) Death", or the doomy Hellhammer riffs in "Past, Present, Dead". The band might seem purposefully raw and unrefined on the surface, but they were good songwriters even from this earlier stage, even the debatable choices on this record like the weird wailed vocals that occasional appear seem deliberate and effective atmospherics.

Lyrically it's bleak; not in a 'bad' way (is there a good way?), but just about every song here is apocalyptic in scope, supremely nihilistic and misanthropic, whether it's teabagging Satan or not. So in other words, it's your average 90s black metal approach which earns the tile of 'grimness', and let's face it, when we gaze upon its Darkthrone-like title with the splash of red/orange in the logo/title, that is exactly what we would expect. Total Soul Rape is not my favorite release from them, but it's also got a lot more longevity to it than your typical newspaper-tone necro-black metal recording, of which there have been countless released since this one (and a lot before it too). This really holds up, and I had fun listening to it here in 2025 as much or more than ever in the past. It's like A Blaze in the Northern Sky if you turned off the air conditioner and cranked up the evil instead.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (purest noxious water)

https://www.facebook.com/craftblackmetal

Pyre - Where Obscurity Sways (2025)

When I look back at the metal albums that end up my favorites for a particular year, there's a pretty even division between those that are innovative and unique while staying catchy, and others that just do a great job doubling down on a pre-established sound and writing damn good songs. In the case of Where Obscurity Sways, the third full length from Russia's Pyre, it was the latter. The album's title is eerily prescient since I'm the only person I've even seen mentioning this one...perhaps it should be dubbed Where Obscurity Stays. But in 2025, this was the metal disc I returned to the most, like a death metal 'comfort food', because I enjoyed all of the songs a lot. It's also a great evolutionary stride for their own style, keeping consistent with its forebears while offering something new, something better for the band.

Pyre's still performing a sound rooted in the later 80s or early 90s, a perfect blend of Florida death metal like Obituary or Death, Dutch oldies from Pestilence and Asphyx, with a little bit of the Swedish style of an Entombed or Dismember, only with the guitar tone dialed back a little. You know it's still there, because there's a great chunkiness to the slower grooves, and a smooth roil when they pick up the pace. But it's nowhere near the gruesome or fleshy style they had on Human Hecatomb or the EP. The riff-lines and leads here are easily the best they've done to this point, whether it's the awesome verse grooves of "From the Stygian Depths" which recall Slowly We Rot, or "Murderous Transcendence" which is an amazing tune that hits pretty much all the bases, from sinister harmonies to flawless double kicks. The riffs in cuts like "Domains of the Nameless Rites" or "Pestilential Fumes" are just perfect throwback patterns, evil and memorable and set up against strong songwriting which emphasizes some variety at every turn.

There's a new drummer here, Oleg, and he's phenomenal, not that his predecessor was weak by any means, but I feel like the entire rhythm section, not just the percussion but also the bass mix, is way better balanced and creates a framework that could thrive independently, even without the awesome array of riffs that last the album's 35 minute duration. Where Obscurity Sways follows Chained to Ossuaries in having the smoother production than the older albums, but I can't imagine it any other way, the material is just suited to being mildly more accessible, and it's not like there is any commercialization or obnoxious level of polish...the music is still dark, mysterious, and classic in a way I just love my death metal records. I'm reminded a little of Necrovation's eponymous 2012 sophomore, not only because the aesthetics are similar, but also because it's just an awesome experience when I'm in the mood for the genre and want something well-written and balanced without being too ridiculous. I love this record. It's nothing new at all, but I would like for more people to get to experience it. My #1 for this last year.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10]

https://pyredeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

Pyre - Chained to Ossuaries (2020)

Chained to Ossuaries came after a six year period from Human Hecatomb, so it makes sense that there's been a little evolution in the Pyre sound. They weren't completely absent, having participated on a few split EPs with Chile's Corpsehammer and Sweden's Interment, and the changes here are no less old school than the raw tones they were emitting in their earlier works. In fact, the guitar tone is pretty much intact, but the mix of the record is a little darker and cleaner, so it's got a more controlled and clinical vibe to it. Nevertheless, they sound no less evil, because the riffs here are just cruise control, grim tremolo picking sequences that perfectly blossom into the dark chord patterns, with solid leads and melodies placed exactly where they need to be, and a lot more confidence that doesn't need to chainsaw your face like the last album.

That's not to say your face is safe, mind you, because this shit still delivers, just on a slightly deeper, more cerebral level. Where Human Hecatomb might resemble a zombie outbreak at your local potter's field, Chained to Ossuaries is more like a cabal of necromancers meeting there in the evenings. It's invariably old sounding death metal, without much nuance beyond the early 90s, so to that extent nobody familiar with the previous album is going to be disappointed. There's a bit more of early Death in a lot of the chord choices in places like "Ornaments of Bones" or "Wreath of Crucifix", but that fleshier and meatier guitar tone twists it into something different, but you could certainly envision breakdowns from Leprosy arriving at almost any juncture on a lot of these songs. The vocals are also a little different than before, he's got less of a skin shredding tone to him and a bit more blunt brutality, compacting those emphatic John Tardy-like growls to something meshed a little better into the dark tone of the instruments. Basically he's a little less out of control, and the riffing itself compensates with a lot bolder chords and melodies.

Another great album, just inching past Human Hecatomb, although if I wanted the grislier listen then I would happily trade them off. This is more of an escape, neither as ripping or brazen but a lot more mature, a direction that the band will continue forth in the future. Definitely good enough that the band should have appeared on a lot more radars, but this sort of meat & potatoes, well crafted death metal often struggles to get noticed since it's not as technical or progressive as others in the field. Never really a clone of anything, but wearing most of its influences on its sleeve, Chained to Ossuaries is just another fine example of its genre sitting among the dust, waiting to be discovered.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://pyredeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

Pyre - Human Hecatomb (2014)

Human Hecatomb feels like the obligatory full-length version of its predecessor, the Ravenous Decease EP, with the same sort of raw production and a lot of DNA from the same influences. Obviously it's got a lot more too it, and the mix of the instruments seems as if its gotten a little more under control, but if you're a fan of the more disheveled bands that have come out of that Swedish style throughout the last few decades, whether Repugnant or Bastard Priest or Katakomba or LIK, this one's going to sit well with you because it's very well done and sticks the landing on most of the tracks. That flesh-ripping guitar tone and the brash mix of the instruments don't hinder it whatsoever, but give it an eternal freshness, like grave-dirt that's being constantly flipped over with a shovel to expose new generations of worms.

Again, the music isn't just d-beat rock based, they love the huge, doomier, evil chord patterns you often encounter in death metal, and then to trade those off with some vile propulsion. There's a better sense of melody you'll hear on this album, with some cool leads or harmonies vaulting across the dense hostility of the rhythm guitars. Vocally it still sounds like someone spliced John Tardy's sustained gutturals together with the carrion tones of Martin van Drunen, but there's a ton of genuine pain and carnage in there so that it never sounds like some dull doppelganger. The guitars are pretty much Ravenous Decease with a bigger toolbox to work from, and they pull off a lot of great chugging patterns here which wouldn't sound out of place on Clandestine. That simple, immediate catchiness that has you headbanging and doesn't ever seem to let up, they just don't make poor choices when writing material. All the songs here are good, with a few personal favorites being the chuggy "Flesh to Poles", the perky "We Came to Spill Thy Blood" which is one of a couple with a more death & roll vibe, and "Possessed" with those evil, slower rhythms and narrative/samples and all.

All told, Human Hecatomb is a step up and forward, perhaps not the first example of this niche you're going to grab for, but an extremely reliable one if you're into the Swedish tones. I'd say musically this one has a little less of the US influence in the actual songwriting, but it's the vocals that bridge that Atlantic gap. It's a Russian Clandestine 20+ years later with a bit more unhinged mix and a vocalist yanked right from The Rack and Cause of Death. Fun songs, timeless production thanks to its lack of polish, and a focus on actually putting enough ideas into its material that it's never some dull, redundant slog. And to think, this is probably my least favorite of their full-lengths!

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://pyredeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

Pyre - Ravenous Decease EP (2012)

Pyre is a little-known Russian death metal band that almost nobody ever seems to talk about, despite having a killer upswing trajectory to their catalogue which has won me over several times. Their origins were as yet another of the bands honoring the Swedish legacy, with that speaker ripping guitar tone and a couple of tunes here that remind one a lot of Entombed, Grave, maybe a little of Holland's Asphyx. However, the material here on the Ravenous Decease EP definitely falls on the rougher side of that equation, raw and unhinged like a Repugnant or Maim. They also don't delve too far into the d-beat influences, you can hear it on a riff or two but it's more like they're transferring early US death metal into that Swedish guitar tone.

The vocals are abusive, sounding like their at a crossroads between John Tardy of Obituary, Martin van Drunen of Asphyx/Pestilence and L-G Petrov of Entombed. The guitars are really abrasive, sounding like a noisy live performance of this tone, and occasionally going a little too far so it seems as if you're eardrums are going to collapse. I mean, you could replace steel wool with these things to clean off your pots & pans, but they have a nice punch during the choppier, rocking riffs ("Insanity") or the tremolo picked, writhing evil at a faster pace. The rhythm section sounds like thunder being filtered through an old radio microphone, and the songs feature enough variety even across the 20 minutes of this EP that you won't become bored. There's nothing unique, truly, Ravenous Decease is just a gestalt of elements you like from other death metal acts, and this sort of throwback style was already plentiful, but some things just don't grow old on me, and I like several of these songs like "Insanity" and "Dark Sorcery". It doesn't hold up to their full-length albums, but it's a firm foundation upon which they would build.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://pyredeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

Protector - Excessive Outburst of Depravity (2022)

By title, Excessive Outburst of Depravity might give you an impression that this is somehow going to be a leveling up of filth and aggression in Protector's reunion phase, but in fact it's a very good, controlled record that offers a little bit of a course correction from the ailing (but still decent) Summon the Hordes. The style hasn't moved an inch, but I thought the production here felt smoother and better captured all the vocals and instruments more than its predecessor, at the cost of not feeling quite so retrospective. Granted, the material here is still blazing thrash of an 80s Sodom variety, like a mix of Agent Orange and Better Off Dead, two of my faves from that band, but the balance and QOL improvements place it more within the 21st century spectrum. You won't miss out the nostalgic vibes this time around, but it takes the thrust and professionalism of Cursed and Coronated to another level, and it's my favorite of this 'MK II' era.

Bunch of tunes here feel like the boys are ammoed up, slinging on their ballistic helmets and headed for the battlefield, like "Open Skies and Endless Seas" with its well-paced intro, "Thirty Years of Perdition" with the same sort of setup but amazing verse riffs, or "Perpetual Blood Oath" which feels like a Bolt Thrower intro colliding into a vintage Destruction section. The rhythm section is incredibly tight, the leads are uniformly good without overindulging, and Martin Missy's vocals feel more brutal and full and charismatic than they were on the 2019 effort. You're still not getting anything highly unique here, this is all directly from the lexicon of German thrash with some seasonings of US flavor, but it's executed with skill, variation, and most importantly, songs that are memorable enough that you'll probably want to play them a few times in succession, which is really the hallmark of quality for most records. I'm not talking super sticky, infectious riffs, but more like a 'comfort food' for those who have been listening to this style for the last 3+ decades.

Even though this album came in the same three-year patterns and those leading up to it, it feels like all the interim time since Summon the Hordes had been better spent composing stronger material, and it never really lapses once throughout its 47+ minutes of existence. There's no goofy tail-end track for filler, "Morse Mania" here is a rager and commands the same respect as opener "Last Stand Hill". The production is from Robert Pehrsson (of Death Breath no less), the mix from Patrick Engel of a dozen German bands, and you can tell they both put a lot of love into making this sound like the de facto Protector album of the new century. This one ranks up there with A Shedding of Skin, The Heritage for me, and it's actually my favorite with Martin Missy's vocals, a blasphemous opinion perhaps, but here we are. Timeless and totally reliable Teutonic thrash from one of the first bands anyone should check out after they've opened the 'starter pack' and a few other brilliant outliers from the 80s era.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (All swords on the sacred stone)

https://www.facebook.com/Protector.666not777

Protector - Summon the Hordes (2019)

Summon the Hordes arrives right on queue, at another 3-year interval which seems to be the efficient standard Protector is maintaining for this newer phase of their career. Which I like: they're taking their time between each release, they're not burning themselves out or spamming my CD rack. On the other hand, I wish I could report some evolution in style or quality, but this record is much like those before it. the cover is a bit more cliche and cheesy with the crossed guitars and skull, and the production here seems a little more primitive, almost like they were trying to emulate Golem's mix a little more directly rather than having a more modern, ironclad take on that formative sound. I felt like Missy's vocals here were also a little less vibrant or inspired, he's spitting out some monotonous snarls and growls on numerous tunes and it's just not helping to elevate a bevy of pretty average riffs that you'll always feel you've heard before, whether in this and's own backlog or the style in general.

So this all adds up to what is my least favorite Protector full-length of the revival period, but it's telling that even the worst album from this band is still actually pretty solid. There continues to be a bit of Destruction in a lot of the riffing, in fact if you took out the difference between Missy and Schmier, there's a feel like this album is Sentence of Death Evolved, it just has those dexterous riffing patterns and a much more demo/basement level authenticity to the mix. The guitars are raw, the vocals have no bells and whistles either. Having said that, there's a decent variety to the songs, from the measured cruising thrash of "The Celtic Hammer" to the frenzied hustle of "Steel Caravan" or the title track. Once more, the death metal influence is explored strictly through Martin's vocals, the music itself never really delves into that territory, remaining upbeat and peppy and bristling with 80s mosh pit energy. Not for the first time, there's also one of those shorter, goofier tracks to close out the album, "Glove of Love", which was also the very 80s thing to do, kind of like a thrash tribute to punk or grindcore, the 'super quick' song that you'd laugh about with your mates.

Had this record come out even in 1985-1986, I still doubt it'd have the legs to stand on other than it's legacy and chronological placement, and might end up in a similar category to Necronomicon from Germany. As it was, it felt more like a proper 'throwback' in production and not just songwriting, to the band's yesteryears. They likely wanted to go more 'retro' which is honestly all the rage with a lot of the newer black/thrash/speed bands who are themselves influenced by the German scene along with a Slayer or Possessed. I think Summon the Hordes has that sort of appeal, only a bit more of the torn denim and hi-top sneakers feel than the spikes and leather. It's solid stuff, with a few tunes like the opener "Stillwell Avenue" or "Realm of Crime" that I occasionally spin, but for me it's the Protector full-length I'm least likely to revisit.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (See the posters, see the pentagram)

https://www.facebook.com/Protector.666not777

World of Shit - Bleeding the Rats EP (2025)

World of Shit is a project which has existed in the shadows for over two decades, finally coming to full fruition with this new EP Bleeding the Rats that sees an escalation in volume and intensity. It's essentially death metal or death/grind adjacent, but not to be pigeonholed, the material has an industrial sheen to its backbone, and a lot of weird dissonance and rhythmic dynamism which wouldn't feel out of place in some extreme mathcore or industrial death metal outfit. The production is dense and suffocating, there's a lot going on between the beats and the riffs, and if that weren't enough, Morgue Supplier's Paul Gillis has been brought on board to saturate our ears with a gruesome exhibition of vocals that I'd place somewhere between Alain Jourgensen and Martin van Drunen, but also prone to grinding out into a higher, nastier pitch too. If you've heard Paul on his other projects, you'll know things are about to get very uncomfortable, and considering that he and one of this project's architects, Eric Bauer, have worked together in both Rabid Beast and Morgue Supplier before, you'll also know that you are about to be leveled by the aural artillery.

Strangely, as pummeling and rhythmic as this is, it's got a slight warmth to it created through the mix, or perhaps some of the more dissonant, noisy patches create this feeling in spite of themselves. It's so loud and larger than life, I was reminded of Strapping Young Lad if they were being flogged by Gorguts. A soundscape with something interesting happening in every corner, a really powerful guitar tone, brutal drum programming. Some of the riffs feel like you're implanting an intense post-hardcore dissonance straight into a vortex of chugging, churning grooves, and it's a really interesting hybrid. The 'leads' are more a thing of atmosphere, tremolo licks spitting melodies that are heavily dowsed in effects, but they are a perfect fit to the apocalyptic post-modernism of the rhythmic aesthetics. Sometimes it can grow a little TOO intense, but thankfully you're only being murdered for about 13 minutes with this. With a longer track list and some more variety to explore these dilapidated landscapes, with calmer calms, hints of melody more melodic, and more extreme extremes, connected through the tendons of such kinetic musicianship as this guy metes out, I think you could have a pretty frightening, unique voice for death metal here.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://worldofshit1.bandcamp.com/music

Protector - The Heritage (1993)

If A Shedding of Skin was my favorite of the earlier Protector catalog, The Heritage was directly on its heels, and in fact some days I might actually reverse the decision. This is clearly the best produced of that run, and the most intense and exciting in terms of how so many of its tight, fast, thrashing tunes are executed. By 1993, it might have felt dated against the emergence of more brutal and technical strains of death metal, with grunge and black and nu metal and all that starting to explode, but you can't accuse the Germans of not trying to keep pace, because The Heritage feels like faster Sepultura, Sadist and mid 80s Dark Angel in a three-way slugfest, and even 33 years later you can press Play and it's violent, infectious, and still has the more matured songwriting which embodied its predecessor.

There's some new blood here to help Olly Wiebel will all that heavy lifting, including drummer Marco Pape who would try and keep the band alive through all its later hiatus. He and bassist Matze help add a level of professionalism here, and I don't mean that in a bad way. But what's even more impressive is how Wiebel has managed to balance off the spiked, thrashing attacks with some more moody, atmospheric and melancholic progressions. The slower bridges and leads in songs like "Lost Properties" feel so much more composed, and through the album there's a level of restraint which helps make its explosive cuts like "Scars Bleed Life Long" all the more memorable by contrast. Marco's drums were clearly the caliber that could land him any gig in a death metal act of the day, propulsive kick drums and flawless snares which add loads of pep and energy to Olly's riffs. Bass also sounds pretty fleshed out here compared to A Shedding of Skin, and the production just blows straight out my speakers, especially some of the howled vocal effects on "Protective Unconsciousness" or the escalating acoustic intro to "Palpitation".

The frenzied little instrumentals "Paralizer" and "Outro" might have been better served by expanding them into proper songs, they seem a bit incomplete, but otherwise all the tunes are ragers, and The Heritage is an album I'd easily recommend to fans of early 90s thrash and death metal and all the combinations thereof. Sadist, Defiance, Malevolent Creation, Deicide, or even the stuff some of the band's German peers were up to that that very time, any fans of that would do well to have this record sitting in their collections. As I said, it's right on par with its predecessor with me, but a lot of that is just nostalgia, the personal memories I attach with A Shedding of Skin. In so many ways, The Heritage is better sounding, more refined, and its dynamic range more impactful. The lyrics have gotten a little more socially and environmentally conscious, which isn't what I always demand in thrash since they get a little too obvious and tacky, but it fits the sound here at least. This 1991-1993 era is my favorite of the band, as much as I enjoyed the first two releases, they certainly felt like they upped the ante right before their (debatable) 20-year slumber, and left (but didn't) us on a high note at that time.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (You dare not to speak)

https://www.facebook.com/Protector.666not777

Protector - A Shedding of Skin (1991)

While it still imports a lot of the ballistic thrash of previous Protector recordings, A Shedding of Skin felt like a matured album risen up to meet the growingly extreme scene surrounding it. While this is still mostly thrash metal (almost all their catalogue is), this could certainly be heard as a more committed blend of that and its death metal offspring. A lot of vocal and guitar queues reminiscent of what Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and Sepultura were spitting out around the same time, and I also hear some parallels to Texans Devastation. The material is easily intense enough to have held the attention of extreme metal fans during that transition from 80s to 90s, and I can only attribute its lack of success to a lack of proper international distribution and the fact that thrash was just about to fall off a cliff outside of its primary practitioners.

Olly Wiebel, who had joined the band only recently for the Leviathan's Desire EP, had pretty much been given the reins here, performing everything other than the drums of Michael Hasse, for whom this would be the last Protector recording (he left afterwards and sadly passed away in 1994). To Wiebel's credit, he did not attempt to completely transform the band into his own image, but took the direction they were already headed with the newer EP material and made it angrier. Stylistically, this is nothing out of the ordinary for 1991, but it definitely feels evolved from its predecessors. The riffs hammering, sinister and have the most slicing distortion yet, with an array of faster, blasting riffs that alternate with your Exodus-style palm muted moshing fare. Wiebel's vocals are ghastly, with a protracted guttural that he can flesh out with more snarled lines or 'hwah' throat-clearings. They are a little blunt at times, and don't offer a lot of interesting syllabic patterns, but he can be forgiven for the amount of effort he's putting into everything else. I think the bass guitar also falls behind a little here, more than any prior offering, but the crunch of those riffs and the volatile, ripping leads compensate.

Lots of good tracks here, from "A Shedding of Skin" which sounds like a German response to something off The Bleeding, or "Doomed to Failure" which has a cool West Coast thrashing foundation reminiscent of Vio-Lence but with guttural vocals. "Whom Gods Destroy" has that cool lead snaking out against the caustic thrashing, and "Tantalus" is a pit crusher which manages to convey the doomed after-existence of its titular character. While consistent, A Shedding of Skin does follow in the band's legacy of providing enough variety that you won't grow bored, so the pacing is evenly distributed throughout, and the acoustic "Intro" and interlude "Necropolis" provide some breathing room, in particular the latter which its cool, synth-driven mystique and guitar effects that sound like scarabs or spiders creeping through a tomb. There is definitely a 'dryness' to the mix which resonates with other stuff by Harris Johns (who produced this with a few engineers), perhaps a similarity could be drawn to the masterwork Mallevs Maleficarvm by Pestilence, thought the composition and clinical feel here is nowhere near that level.

1991 was a strange year where a number of bands won huge success off albums I felt were somewhat lacking, whether for production or musical direction, and something like A Shedding of Skin appealed to me much more than Blessed Are the Sick or Arise. Although I can appreciate and even concur why some fans' hearts would remain back with the earlier Martin Missy era, Misanthropy and Golem having a sense of timelessness about them, this one is actually my favorite full-length of that earlier Protector run. It doesn't build up anything new upon the components which influenced it, but it still feels vile and aggressive even today, and some of the songs just resonate with me the most. Add that it's the unlikely product of just the drummer and the new guy who had to deliver on several instruments, and I think it punched well above its potential.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (Strip away the garments of sin)

https://www.facebook.com/Protector.666not777

Protector - Leviathan's Desire EP (1990)

Leviathan's Desire has another of those evocative covers where you've got this dad-bod troll or goblin hanging out at at some sort of bathhouse in an evil castle, incense pouring out of a jeweled goblet nearby, and then for whatever reason some ugly cat or wolf or something leaping up behind the title. It's absolutely ridiculous and yet intriguing because it reminds us that Protector must be evil nerds, kind of like Tankard with the drunken alien mascot on so many of their efforts. This is a shorter clocking EP than Misanthropy from 1987, includes one extended version of a tune from that ("Kain & Abel"), and then a trio of newer tracks. I believe that there's also another version where you are getting more of Misanthropy included as a bonus, and that would ramp up the value a little, but here it's just the basic intro + four.

Right away, the new material sounds more scathing and sinister than on Urm the Mad, like a volatile and ballistic parallel to Sodom in the later half of the 80s, only maintaining the growls from that last full-length. Only this time, it's a new vocalist, Olly Wiebel, taking them into an even more carnal direction than Martin Missy had; he's also got more of that snarl and guttural exchange, not to the extent of Glen Benton or Carcass, but it helps keep this material sounding deadly. The riffs are far from exceptional, but they buzz and bludgeon along with more confidence than they had on the last outing, and the drums and bass anchor down and control all the intensity. You really feel like you're on a knife's edge with a "Mortal Passion" or "Subordinate", they are rooted it some of that vicious thrash circa Darkness Descends or Bonded by Blood, only more Sodom-like in note choices. The lead guitars are really messy and zippy throughout, but help capture that reckless atmosphere which is really the goal. And for those who want to headbang, they trot out some of those mid-paced sequences for you to strain your neck, and you really feel them against the faster sequences.

As for "Kain & Abel", this is almost two minutes longer and Olly's vocals make it feel more fresh and vile, although clearly not as Teutonic or thrashy as Martin's originals. I don't know that this was in any way necessary over including another new tune, but it does sound good and streamlined with this other material and assumedly future direction. All told, Leviathan's Desire is a treat for the 15 or so minutes it exists, content with tearing your face off and then eating it before a good scented bath. For 1990 it also felt fairly orthodox since so many other genre bands were trying to evolve towards the soon-shifting landscape. This is pretty much 1986-1987 all over again with few bells or whistles.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (The burnt magicians prophecy)

https://www.facebook.com/Protector.666not777