Nine years later and now three albums deep into their ‘old school’ death inspired trip Danish/Turkish quartet HYPERDONTIA have, either by way of adaptation or simply honing their attack, presented a different angle of auld enlightenment with each release. Zoning out and manifesting its own authentically sinister yet adept riff-focused aggression this third album continues that enduring thread wherein their broadly stated goal seeks its best-yet example of classics-minded death metal, upholding a simple enough point of purpose. While it would be fair to view their body of work as curated progression ‘Harvest of Malevolence‘ sits as the result of consistently tightening the screws on an obsession, one which achieves its own free-wheeling finesse via an early-to-mid 90’s (kinda) tech yet punishing groove this time around. It all preaches in an effortless tongue as if elite death metal-ese were their first language, having been living and breathing this stuff ’til reaching the point of the glorious mutation we find here today.

Hyperdontia started out as a side project circa 2015 as guitarist Mustafa Gürcalioğlu (Diabolizer, Engulfed, et al.) had established connections with Danish musicians involved in Phrenelith and such for a line-up initially fronted by maestro Torturdød. As they’ve stated since, the original quartet didn’t necessarily map out their future but simply got to work on a set of death metal songs, notably morbid and monstrous stuff which has been well-received in every instance since. Though they don’t necessarily see it in the same light where the band started versus where they are now are two tonally different planes of existence. Since I’ve reviewed each of their records to date one can easily trace the surprise when the murky, downtuned and morbid atmospheric death metal found on their Dead Congregation-esque debut album (‘Nexus of Teeth‘, 2018) transformed into punchier, more hectic command on their sophomore album (‘Hideous Entity‘, 2021). As I’d noted on the review for that second album part of the change felt came by way of the switch to vocalist/guitarist Matthias Friborg (Sort Sind, Taphos, Sulphurous) up front but the production values had also changed with a bump from Earhammer studios, though the atmospheric dirging quality of that record still matched up with the intent of the first. Few bands could manage any sort of believable paradigm shift of that magnitude, and to be fair I wasn’t sure where to make the connection to start, but the quality of the material and the focus on the riff kinda sandblasted away any doubts when that second record’d fully hit.

While I’d been more officially made a fan by the enduring lustre of ‘Hideous Entity‘ it wasn’t until Hyperdontia had released their 2023 mLP ‘Deranged‘ that I’d begin to kinda go apeshit for their stuff, that’d been the point where they were more than just above-average, now a band achieving some type of important mastery, to my ears at least. That record stunk of early Suffocation, the technical kind of bopping blasted grooves and bass guitar interjections where all of the musician’s finesse had gone into nigh playful mayhem. It was their tightest, fastest and most destructive songcraft at that point but the band’d suggested in interviews part of why it’d read a certain way was a change in tuning, switching from the frothy two-and-a-half step down B tuning up a full step to C#. While this may not seem like a big deal at face value it represents a world of difference, and in some sense a different era of heavy music, but also in terms of the sheer action one can achieve when yanked out of the mud of heavier gauges and floppier feel.

‘Harvest of Malevolence‘ takes direct cues from the successes of ‘Deranged‘, keeping the tuning tight (as far as I can tell) as they’re still hitting that sweet spot in terms of rhythm guitar clarity and classic mid-to-late 90’s death metal attunement. It makes for a big difference in terms of listening experience where nothing seems to bog down the moment-to-moment thrust of Hyperdontia‘s modus. Even if things haven’t changed drastically beyond the prior mLP I would say this album appears more technical, slightly more frantic in its non-stop pacing, and remains bright yet brutal thanks to production values (Earhammer studio does wonders for this type of band) which treat the bass guitar tone/values with care but still allow the guitar riff and rhythms to command the experience as the primary voice. That said there are a few additions, or, more prominent features which feel less carefully curated, such as the use of a wah pedal for most of the solos which gives the album an early 2000’s-era Vader kind of rub on a few songs.

Though these are snappier, tightened songs which rarely drone off or fade out compared to past Hyperdontia releases the general cut of this album is not entirely unfamiliar per its taste for progressions likely to stir the brains of anyone who appreciates the attack of Gorguts ‘Erosion of Sanity‘ as well as the freely thrashing grooves of earlier technical death metal (“Death’s Embrace”, etc.) in some vague sense. A few songs begin to resemble something along the lines of the second Monstrosity album (see: “Irrevocable Disaster”, “Marking the Rite”) but with easier-going flow and some brutish NYDM feeling movements to keep things from running too far off the rails. Though I don’t think their songwriting process necessarily involves taking inspiration from these specific artists there is a certain peaking ’93-’95 feeling to this work when parsing its structure, enjoying its main points of finesse, and sticking around for tons of spins thanks to the highly repeatable and rushed-at tone of their work.

By virtue of the perfectly set ~40 minute runtime and what I’d consider “classic” yet energetically charged ~4-5 minute death metal songs throughout I’d found myself listening to ‘Harvest of Malevolence‘ for longer than expected sessions, successive repeat listens where it’d all thrilled to no end and felt entirely contained as a glom of laser-focused death metal songcraft. The entertainment value is particularly high here for my taste for the sake of that focus and the nuance achieved in such a flow state via a high (yet unpretentious) standard of performance and without necessarily writing expressly tuneful music. That said the focus inherent to the music here should have you feeling déjà vu by the time the final song hits as they’d begin to exhaust this particular approach in uniformly set presentation.

While a more dynamic and varied record might’ve been wild in its own right (their previous LP kinda achieved that anyhow) it only adds to the ‘old school’ inspired authenticity of this record that ‘Harvest of Malevolence‘ finds one point of entry and sticks with that level of attack throughout, finding its life and personae in variations on pure intensity. If there was any need for deeper analysis on my part it’d basically read as a ten page riff-by-riff account, so I’ll instead sum my thoughts in suggesting this is the best kind of “riff record” presented during a drought for such things, and it’ll likely serve as pure pleasure for anyone attuned to the brutal obsession of 90’s death metal rhythms. Count me in with that crowd, eh, this is easily one of the most repeatable death metal records of the month and a brilliant extension of the arena Hyperdontia struck gold with last year via ‘Deranged‘. A very high recommendation.

---