Greetings, Decibel readers!
If you wanted a clear picture of what death metal looks like today, this week would deliver you the ideal representative landscape. On the one hand, today brings us two albums from the style’s experimental side with Blood Incantation and Cosmic Putrefaction. On the other, if you just want meat-and-potatoes, riffs-and-grows — Maul and Undeath have new ones out as well.
Enjoy!
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Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
There’s no one else quite like Blood Incantation out there nowadays, and that’s part of what gives them their special appeal. While they of course deliver on all the brutality and aggression demanded of the death metal canon, there’s a secret sauce somewhere in the mix. The band just douses their sound in that stuff this time around. What Esoctrilihum does for black metal, Blood Incantation does for death metal.
Stream: Apple Music
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Cosmic Putrefaction – Emerald Fires Atop The Farewell Mountains
Of the myriad oddities found on I, Voidhanger records, I always thought Cosmic Putrefaction was one of the strongest examples of weirdness that still lined up with brutal coherence. Now on Profound Lore, the project continues it’s interstellar conquest on their fourth album. There’s a lot going on with the band’s particular take on progressive death metal, but it’s all fascinating and forms a vast galaxy of sounds to explore on each listen.
Stream: Apple Music
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Doomraiser – Cold Grave Marble
Pardon the diversion, but there’s also a really cool doom metal album out today. Doomraiser is a long-running riff machine from Rome, here bringing us their sixth album. Essential listening for fans of Cathedral and Candlemass.
Stream: Apple Music
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Maul – In the Jaws of Bereavement
Oh, damn these guys already have a new one out! Feel like it was just yesterday that I reviewed Seraphic Punishment. But if you want to hear straightforward death metal with a penchant for hardcore grooves, this is the band for you. Pretty cool they got Vincent Bennett on the title track, which does remind me of The Dead Walk-era of The Acacia Strain.
Stream: Apple Music
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Undeath – More Insane
You all know we’re big fans of Undeath here at Decibel, and for good reason. When it comes to no frills skullrattling death metal, these guys are the blood-splattered gold standard. This is the followup to 2022’s It’s Time… to Rise From the Grave, which you might remember topping our albums-of-the-year list for that year.
Stream: Apple Music