Undergrind Metal

Cryptdweller – Inevitable Obliteration May 2019 – Unsigned Inevitable Obliteration is modern death metal done right. Paying respects to its predecessors by virtue of its pure vigor, it's got influences from some of the biggest acts their country has to offer, namely Suffocation and more recent Devourment. North Carolina looks barren in the death metal department for a newcomer, so here's to Cryptdweller carving their state's name into the extreme metal monolith. With a timbre sometimes similar to Aekerfeldt on Resurrection Through Carnage and the clearest enunciation I've heard in a long time, it's no surprise the vocals were the first element that held my attention. Belching blasphemy with a sharp, harsh tone without resorting to the cheap tricks of guttural ranges and squeals is a sign of what's to come – no-nonsense death metal that plays by the rules, and plays well. Pounds of Flesh has the heaviest intro written this year, using what see...

Kataplexia – The Rise of the Unknown January 2019 – Rotten Music Kataplexia is Finland's best Indonesian brutal death metal band. You read that right, Indonesian is now a valid qualifier for brutal death metal. For those unaware, I explored and wrote about the Southeast Asian brutal death metal scene two years ago, discovering a gigantic scene with an uncharacteristic public acceptance. One of the members of Jasad began a side-project, Kaluman, which is the definition of high-quality Southeast Asian brutal death metal. A couple seconds into Kataplexia's latest, I expected to see Rottervore or Extreme Souls as their label, as every element pointed towards Indonesian origins – the tone, production, vocals, riffs and even album art all felt like Ferli Suferli (Jasad, Kaluman) was behind the project, yet Helsinki is listed as their base of operations. Admittedly, there's only so much one can actually say about the music without endless comparisons. A modern ...

Triumvir Foul – Urine of Abomination February 2019 – Vrasubatlat/Invictus Productions Two years after the stellar Spiritual Bloodshed, Triumvir Foul are back with the Urine of Abomination EP, a noisy, chaotic, primitive record that's satisfyingly predictable and predictably satisfying. Sharing a member with Dagger Lust, for whom the best descriptor I could come up with would be noisened death metal, it comes as no surprise that every entry this EP writes in the book of death metal is surrounded by slabs of warm, almost comforting harsh noise sections. Reminiscent of Azarath, the vocals have a raw, primitive rasp, fitting the caveman aspect curated by similar cavernous death metal bands. Raw and primitive also describe every other aspect of the record – some leads are literal three-note tapping sections, and the rhythm section is filled with hammer blasts and other similar beats that I'd assume were first played during mammoth hunts. The songwriting is where ...

Noctambulist – Atmospheres of Desolation January 2019 – Blood Harvest Records Atmospheres of Desolation is the most dense and opaque record I've listened to this year, bringing me back to my early exploration of dissonant black and death metal, where I learned to swim in the thick pools of quicksand distortion and breathe the noxious fumes of dissonance. Noctambulist have crafted a trying experience, as wading through the waist-high marsh they recorded requires full attention – from the hellish arpeggios burning my lungs to the muddy technical chuggs pulling at my legs from beneath, Atmospheres of Desolation does its best to test my sanity. Despite the obscure, swampy aesthetic they've cultivated like a jungle garden of poisonous plants, Noctambulist show technical prowess, but with enough restraint as to not become musical masturbation. Kick drums using start/stop patterns, guitar work that needs no leads to show off creativity or precision, and overall tight ...

Ossuarium – Living Tomb February 2019 – 20 Buck Spin After being signed to 20 Buck Spin last year, Tomb Mold's Cerulean Salvation was propelled to relative fame, and gained a spot on Bandcamp's best-selling death metal records. Hopefully Ossuarium gain as much well-deserved recognition after releasing Living Tomb via 20 Buck Spin. Psychedelic is not a common term in the death metal underground, a world mostly described as brutal, ominous or repugnant – yet Ossuarium build upon the idea that neither are mutually exclusive, and mix both to great effect while staying within the realm of their genre. Leads reminiscent of a detuned sitar reverberating through a cold Arabian night appear throughout the record, effectively building up or releasing tension and giving Living Tomb more momentum than it could ever gather with riffs alone. Malicious Equivalence shows the proverbial dark side of the moon, an evil approach to atmosphere built with the wails of lost souls re...

Caustic Vomit – Festering Odes to Deformity December 2018 – Redefining Darkness Records/Unsigned A half-hour demo is a surprise in most genres, but death/doom is no stranger to long records – particularly if they're practically funeral doom. Caustic Vomit were lucky enough to be noticed by Redefining Darkness, who issued the cassette version of their demo – and it's no surprise the label enjoyed what they heard, Festering Odes to Deformity being the catchiest and most memorable death/doom record I've heard in a while. All three songs have good ideas, but Once Coffined Malformities is what every closer should aspire to be. An evocative soundscape, painting the picture of a smoking battlefield, with corpses strewn across like so many pock marks on diseased skin. Bombers scream distorted leads over rumbling tanks while vocal artillery booms in the distance. Their singer gives Antti from Demilich a run for his money, reaching oktavist levels of bass in his m...

Malignant – Purity Through Putrefaction January 2019 – Maggot Stomp California has quite the legacy when it comes to death metal, spawning giants from the sand pits of the Mojave in the late 80s/early 90s with names like Exhumed, Terrorizer, Deeds of Flesh or Autopsy. While the legion of behemoths has migrated to greener pastures, there will always be tribute to be paid for those who tread the same sinuous paths – and Malignant have brought a sacrificial lamb to the altar of old-school death metal. Purity Through Putrefaction may not fully fit the bill, yet with so many OSDM elements it's as if it came out 25 years ago. The vocal performance is even more thrash-leaning than a couple of predecessors, with the same signature airy rasp that defined early harsh vocals – but the lead tones really show the old school sensibilities – scooped mids (and bass), recorded a mile away then turned up, and a healthy dose of whammy abuse. The bass fills clipping did make me won...

Charnel Altar – Demo January 2019 – Unsigned Charnel Altar has been on my list for a month, and I assume has caught the eye of both Blood Harvest Records and Dark Descent Records. A thick, heavy slab of a demo, proving once again that the Aussie underground scene easily rivals legends like Florida. With a singer reminiscent of Ethan McCarthy (Primitive Man, Vermin Womb), a guitar tone that could grind stone to dust and melodies evil enough to frighten the devil, Charnel Altar only has to put out a full-length to grow a cult following from the dirty death metal audience. If you've heard anything put out by Blood Harvest or Dark Descent, you know the one trope of the genre that's left out – blistering speed. Mid-tempo at best, the demo sometimes flirts with death/doom, most notably during Acephalic Worms, a dirge of the damned worthy of being played in death row. The muffled mix reinforces the whole dirty, underground aesthetic – kick drums sound like the feel...

Sulphurous – Dolorous Death Knell December 2018 – Dark Descent Records 90s revival and cavernous death metal started gaining popularity about two years ago, with bands such as Phrenelith and Pissgrave being propelled into quasi-mainstream success thanks to a couple of public figures introducing their audiences to an otherwise relatively underground facet of death metal. Dark Descent Records have certainly capitalized on said revival, signing giants of the genre like Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice, and previously Chthe’ilist (and Mitochondrion to a certain degree). As with any other cavernous death metal record, the production is the first thing you’ll notice – it’s all suffocated, as if the amps were draped in thick curtains. Few effects and no triggers are applied to the drums, giving the whole package a very live/practice room aspect. Despite the apparent muddiness of Dolorous Death Knell, everything’s quite audible – even the lower registers somehow retain ...

Light Dweller – Incandescent Crucifix January 2019 – Unsigned When checking out a one-man bandcamp release, you'll often end up either discovering something strange, or something forgettable – Incandescent Crucifix is the former, and one of the best blackened death metal albums I've heard so far. This isn't your average Behemoth clone, as Light Dweller takes a much more experimental and technical approach to the genre, with songwriting reminiscent of Wormed given the contrast between one section and the next, and riffs ranging from quasi-math/black to the more dissonant side of technical death metal. It's a dense album, with chaotic composition and an unorthodox take on the rules – there are none of the sweeps or noodling you'd expect from something labelled technical, with all the creative effort being thrown at the sinuous riffs and dissonant chords. The vocals and drums are the only constants on the record, the rest being ever-changing, like som...

Hyperdontia – Nexus of Teeth September 2018 – Dark Descent Records More Dark Descent material – and these guys are almost family to them, having the same vocalist as Phrenelith/Undergang and sharing a guitarist with Sulphurous as well as a the same recording studio. The differentiating factor here is the riffs – while they haven't foregone the tremolo-picked sections one would expect from bands signed to Dark Descent, they've certainly toned them down in favour of actual riffs, spicing them with pinch harmonics and classic chromatic single-note lines. While the riffs contribute to a much more memorable album, the songwriting helps burn it into memory by creating natural flows from build-up to apex, mixing mid-tempo and faster sections masterfully, as well as a couple quasi-death/doom parts such as the intro to Majesty. The latter serve as a good break from an otherwise intense album, and allow some slight showing-off by the drummer and bassist – specifically dur...

Wormhole Genesis - 2016 While Lacerate Enemy Records deserve an entire article for themselves for releasing some of the best slam albums of the last decade, Wormhole's first full-length « Genesis » is worth a review on its own. Released November 30 th 2016, I only came across it a couple of months ago. I clearly missed out, as it not only has the kind of riffs that tickle my eardrums just right, it's also got Duncan Bentley from Vulvodynia on vocals. If that isn't a selling point since Psychosadistic Design (Lacerated Enemy Records – 2016), I don't know what is. Genesis starts out as an average 20XX slam album, reminiscent of Gluttonous Chunks (Inherited Suffering Records – 2016) era Coprocephalic, with memorable grooves and a fun introductory slam. Overall, the flow is controlled and intelligently written, with counterrythms and disorienting fills keeping you on your feet. It's the kind of band during which you'd see a crowd of uncoordinated h...

Misantropologi – Undergang Dark Descent Records – 2017 Another album featuring David Torturdød, this time listed as David Mikkelsen. 2017's been a busy year for the man, and we thank him for it, as the three records he's participated in have been phenomenal ! Undergang is a danish death metal band whose cover art has always been reminiscent of that oldschool, hand-drawn demotape-style art common 20 years ago. David is responsible for most of it, shaping him out to be some kind of twisted artistic genius, only capable of creating the ugliest and most suffocating pieces.While their sound isn't that close to old-school death metal, they do oscillate between an osdm-tinged bouncier style and a more straightforward, brutal-influenced death metal, giving Misantropologi a very fun and almost merry aspect. Mid-tempo grooves, slower dragging power chords, and drawling tremolo-picked melodies that trail off into the hellscape Undergang's created – Misantropologi, w...

Phrenelith Desolate Endscape – 2017 Remember when the Internet went crazy for Pissgrave – Suicide Euphoria (Profound Lore Records) back in 2015 ? It's time for a new riot straight from the abyss, and the demon's name is Phrenelith. Born in 2013 in Copenhagen, Phrenelith started their career out with a split with Spectral Voice (Iron Bonehead, 2016), followed shortly by an EP (Chimaerian Offspring – Extremely Rotten Productions, 2017) and a masterpiece of an album, Desolate Endscape (Dark Descent Records, 2017). Desolate Endscape is the kind of album that reminds me why I like death metal – it's inherently primal , evil and intimidating. This record is a massive slab of death metal, dense and heavy and being thrown at your face. The fact that there's zero flourish or unnecessary technicality brings Phrenelith to the forefront of the cavemanesque caverncore scene that's been simmering for the past decade. The entire album drips with ichor, and while ...

When I say slam, people usually think of the Russian scene, often citing ultra-heavyweights Abominable Putridity. Well, it turns out Portugal is also amazing at mid-tempo grooving. Their first release, Dehumanization by Supremacy, was an exceptional debut from any point of view. The production was spot-on, the songs had great flow, and the slams were goddamn heavy. The vocals were arguably the least impressive, mainly because there was so little variety – which is something given that we’re talking about brutal death metal here. On Atrocities from Beyond, the man behind the mic is replaced by the lead guitarist, Diogo Santana, and this man’s range is far superior – there are some nice mid-ranged growls mixed and that really give the gutturals punch by contrast. They’ve hired backup on a couple of songs, including the legendary Larry Wang from Coprocephalic, who’s always a welcome addition to any album. It’s great to hear how the songwriting grew between the two records. The first ...