Greetings, Decibel listeners!
It’s been a quiet season for new releases lately, so July has been light on this column. However, this week brings us an interesting variety of death metal flavors to chew on, from dissonant and doomy, to fast and crunchy.
Eat up.
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Defacement – Duality
Disorienting, dizzying death metal from the Dutch band that’s basically obligated to put some sort of contorted or mutilated face on every album cover from now on. This essentially takes dissonant death metal to its logical extreme. Those looking for nightmarish sounds akin to Ulcerate need look no further (well, perhaps other than that band’s new album).
Stream: Apple Music
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Laceration – I Erode
A band that was made for 20 Buck Spin. Solid, straightforward death metal. The only frills are the riffs, growls, and blasts you expect from such a band.
Stream: Apple Music
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Mean Mistreater – Razor Wire
Classic heavy metal in the early-80s style, with shades of stadium-sized hard rock still intact as well. Fear not, this razor wire is laden with hooks, hooks, and more catchy hooks!
Stream: Apple Music
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Summoning The Lich – Under The Reviled Throne
I liked 2021’s United in Chaos a lot, so I’m stoked to hear this band return with this new album. Think The Black Dahlia Murder with a boost of 2010’s deathcore (but before that style got played out to death).
Stream: Apple Music
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Void Witch – Horripilating Presence
This is the debut album from the Austin-based quartet, which gives listeners a rather energetic take of death-doom. It preserves the atmosphere you’d usually go for with that style, but pushes some faster tempos into the mix to get the blood pumping at a different pace than with many similar bands.
Stream: Apple Music