All seven stages of depravity, all the time. — Copenhagen, Denmark-based death metal quartet Undergang have been around since 2008 and though their output’d been fairly prolific and notable enough for its classicist barbarism from the get-go they’d hit the stride we witness today beyond 2018 as their line-up appeared to re-solidify beyond the success of their fourth full-length. There has yet to be any real checks and balances applied to their tyrannical spasms since then as we watch ’em morph from plodding and punkish ‘old school’ death metal mutant babes toward a leading amalgam of death-grinding, doomed and tunefully gruesome entity today. An mLP like ‘De syv stadier af fordærv‘ continues this tradition as an agent meant to overwhelm the senses with an eye-peeling stench and a grinding kick which still appears entirely in the bounds of the old and most rotten traditions. Everything they touch turns unhinged, feral and uncouth sputum in the worm-churned mouths of these freaks.

Triple-fisting their degen action as expected, anno MMXXIII CE finds Undergang having already jettisoned a couple of smaller releases before this one including a live recording of their latest full-length ‘Aldrig i Livet‘ (2021), a four-way split (‘Tetralogy of Death‘, 2023) representative of their scene, and a somewhat under-the-radar split LP with eerily distant death/doom metal group Spectral Voice. In chopping my way through those releases the common note taken began to add up to deeper stabs into the wellspring of both brutal death/deathgrind urgency and especially doom metal riffs.

Their name means doom, don’t it? — This continues to be true throughout most of the ~21 minute spin of ‘De syv stadier af fordærv‘, a doom n’ grind dynamic which doesn’t just plunge into murk but brutalizes the path forward first as we find on “Livløs i en pøl af egne udskillelser” (+1 dual lava lead) and “Mælkehvid og gennemsigtigt”, both of which prominently feature death/doom metal dripping sections as notable centerpieces. Whether we’re walking, stomping, or blasting off into these riff-packed sectors elsewhere some manner of hook or spectacularly moshable idea is on the way, divebombs are flinging left and right, Finndeath turns are taken, and the multi-layered freakery from vocalist/guitarist David Mikkelsen‘s guttural repertoire only seems to expand its choke-and-sputtering growl by the moment. Side A/first half goes off in a way that is on par with the disgusting energy of ‘Aldrig i livet‘ while still pushing the chunder up the throat and further over the top.

The rivers of yellow-and-golden pus continue to flow on Side B/second half with the stop-start n’ inhaled “Mysfarning af liget”, a good example of the ‘Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious‘-level bits they’re machining around in hand with simple but memorable movements which catch the ear quick, building and cutting the groove off in under a few minutes. There is this ghostly underpinning within this side of the band that links up with all the pre-death n’ roll deal, a sort of rocking groove always threatening to surface which helps the full listen feel authentically ‘old school’ while presenting a distilled and even more maniac performative side. I suppose that is the enduring appeal of Undergang on my end, a feeling which references the ugliest pre-commercial side of death metal and gives it an extra coating of madness inducing hoark.

Just as soon as one could begin to argue Undergang are a known quantity, a staple who always deliver the goods we find them restlessly treading a morbid path, yanking their corpse nearer to the outrageous far-side of things and so far they’ve kept me thoroughly entertained. Though it might just growl past with ~20 minutes of weirding gore-grinding death metal this mLP reminds us that these folks are never so far gone in their extremism to put up music worth remembering, for spectacle of riff and gaseous vomit or tuneful reap. A high recommendation.

---