Let the layers of crypt-stilled dust reddening the eyes and stabbing the chest with pleurisy be small reminder beyond the numbness of everyday suffering that death will wipe you off the face of the earth and leave you nothing but not before Melbourne, Australia-based death metal band Cemetery Urn have burnt the coming eternity into your skull per their own bull of Phalaris here on this impressive return for a fifth full-length album. Resilient and ingenious in their own right yet traditional by most any credible account these folks once again produce elite death metal brutality on ‘Suffer the Fallen‘, work which may very well read familiar yet differs in substantial ways from past accomplishments. As is tradition in their enduring reign some actors might phase in and out of their station but the core purpose and potency of the band remains world class in its presentation of pure, blood-curdling and fire-flinging death metal.

Cemetery Urn formed back in 2006 with guitarist Andrew Gillon (Abominator) leading the pack alongside Bestial Warlust vocalist Damon Bloodstorm, the two had come up with the idea the year before drummer Skitz Sanders (ex-Destroyer 666) among several other cohorts from the rabid Melbourne scene would stick around for their first couple albums. The first recording was an unofficial CD-r rehearsal passed around at shows but it wasn’t long before their self-released debut LP (‘Urn of Blood‘, 2007) made it clear to the public that their menace would be all about fairly traditional death metal sounds which took inspiration from Incantation, Immolation and Morbid Angel of course but also had a bestial, whipping side to their sound that’d frequently cracked off into morbid and martial tirades amidst the guttural heave and tremolo-riffed churn of it all. That is to say that their style is the sort of death metal which is deeply familiar to folks who never tire of the permutations of those core groups (add your own progenitors, if needed) and at the time this group kicked up bands like Blaspherian, Drawn and Quartered, Dead Congregation and such were doing some of their best-remembered work in a similar style. We could certainly look to ‘The Conquered are Burned‘ (2010) and see a world-class contemporary putting out a self-released album and from what I recall they’d even toured the states around this time, folks certainly knew who they were despite their independence but the band all split besides Gillon after that second LP/tour.

Tuned a couple steps closer to Hell and traditional in every sense Cemetery Urn are a death metal band who (mostly) stick to the subject of death with some manner of abstraction depending who’d written the lyrics. If you’re one of the few who’re fan enough to note these sorts of differences some of my favorite lyrics and general imagery from the band hit with their self-titled return (‘Cemetery Urn‘, 2017) several years later, a third album that’d been the first to feature Chris Volcano, a longtime Abominator cohort and early drummer for Ignivomous and Denouncement Pyre. Of course his vocals were different than Bloodstorm’s more guttural work, something a bit closer to Ross Dolan circa ’91 and this paired with a crispy-ass kinda overdrive rounded guitar sound and more clear production values make for a pretty damned ideal death metal record with plenty of blast-paced, bestial whipping on the kit (per Matt Maniac.) They’re probably not the only band to play in this style (US + European riff-obsessed style) but that one’d been the defining album from the band from my point of view and I think the “barbarian” death metal tag they’d been given made good sense and differentiated their stuff from the softball ‘old school’ influenced death metal that has been exhausted since then; Likewise you’ll recall I’d reviewed ‘Barbaric Retribution‘ back in 2018 and reading it now you’ll see I feel the same way about the band’s style and how it’d changed slightly with each record, incorporating some sharp pace changes on that one in particular.

A couple of things are obvious enough when returning to Cemetery Urn‘s run thus far and the first is, sure, the line-up might not’ve stayed solid when the momentum was hottest but they’ve adapted and made it happen with each release since. Gillion is clearly driven and has an unreal knack for this type of death metal, the results are always above-average, the sound only got bigger with each release. The style continues to be unmistakable in its spire within the brutal, mean-assed canon of morbid death-obsessed death metal and this trend continues on album number five; No doubt there were challenges with this record though none of ’em show up to haunt it. I’m almost sure they’d had line-up issues on top of the pandemic gumming things up and despite some suggestion they were ready and finished by (or even before) 2022, initially sharing a Chris Moyen artwork for the LP (now a Mark Riddick piece), it’d probably taken a couple extra years to happen and the crew for the performances on this one included Gillion on guitar, Joel Westbrook on bass, Vahrzaw and ex-Eskhaton drummer Brandon Gawith and returning vocalist Volcano (who has since left). The point to be made here is that it doesn’t sound like they’ve only just pulled it off here but rather that Cemetery Urn have returned without missing a beat, evolving into the core mastery while hitting harder than ever. In fact this one should go down as the one to feature their most well-rounded pacing, highest riff count, and overall loudest beast of a recording to date.

As with all prior Cemetery Urn records ‘Suffer the Fallen‘ begins hacking right to the bone from the first riff, blasting in under thirty seconds and striding into a molten groove in under a minute, already up working up the nausea of their riffs to a doomed peak ~2:00 minutes into opener “Damnation is in the Blood”. Carrying the torch of pure death metal at its most defined peak with congested rhythm-obsessed runs and slowly developed change-ups the first several songs on the album bleed together with an ‘Failures For Gods‘ sort of bounding attack, particularly “Kill at a Distance” when its bigger swinging riffs hit but here we get some of the more aggressive movements from the band with martial drumming, parts which remind me of ‘Extermination Revelry‘ in terms of their groove but with the creep-and-thrash of the downtuned and stabbed-at guitar work I associate with ‘The Inexorable‘-era Angelcorpse. This is initially how I’d describe the rhythm guitar voicing which carries through the album, though we do get some of the circa ’91 Bolt Thrower type swells and even some quick harmonized leads (“Savage Torment”) as the otherwise cold and miserable lunges of the album stretch out.

For my own taste “Embers of the Burning Dead” would end up being one of the better pieces on the album and enough of a change in the major thread of the increasingly claustrophobia-inducing brutality of the album that I’d been doubly entertained. Not only does Gawith‘s drumming shock some extra hammer speed into Cemetery Urn‘s sound but they’re moving between ideas quicker, easier and this song acts as a showcase for the many moods available to ‘Suffer the Fallen‘ where I’d particularly loved the doomed-out mid portion of the song and the ruinous lead into the solo that caps off that moment. Throw in some Finndeath gloom, creeping leads, and guttural retching on “Room of Depravity” and I’d been impressed well beyond expectations when digging into the entrails of this record and finding something new with every spin. In terms of what they add to their vernacular beyond that point the last three pieces shape together, not a ton of new techniques or ideas beyond another burst of brutality with the title track and another bounding, tumultuous piece (“It Will End in Death”) for the closer, another favorite piece of mine among the lot.

Again, I think this is one of the better composed and ordered-for-effect records in Cemetery Urn‘s discography thus far. It all caps off at just under forty minutes without belaboring their approach while still managing to feel relentless and oppressive throughout, at no point did I need their work to veer outside the zone and ‘Suffer the Fallen‘ keeps it in the pocket for its duration without a weak choice in sight. If you aren’t as entertained as I am by pace changes, riff-after-riff without a turd in sight, and truly morbid brutality gushing from every word then no doubt your experience will vary; I’m not always a fan of Mark Riddick‘s work but in this case the album cover art is meaner, far more blasphemic than the one they’d previewed back in 2022 and I think this was a great choice in terms of how it fits in next to past works and represents this sly monstrosity of a record. All in all the whole deal is well above par and one of the best all-around showings from the band to date. A high recommendation.

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