At a loss for control, a mental state of ecstatic psychosis enhanced by ear-wrenching and tunneling sounds overtakes the green-tinted visions of Leipzig, Germany-based death metalpunk quintet DEATHRITE as their surrealistic vision of extreme metal girded heavy-rocking muse melts and meanders through hallways of senses-tingling dread. Deranged metalpunk, psychedelic death-crust, and/or a hallucinatory trip through a dark and decaying mindset ‘Flames Licking Fever‘ might be the band’s fifth full-length album but it sounds like a fresh-ass breakout debut in their hands having found a point of refinement beyond the stylistic turn they’d taken six years ago. There is a nauseated existential swerve, an estranged finesse foundered within the flexion of this album’s length that charms as much as it harrows throughout.

Deathrite formed as a quartet circa 2010 playing an extreme version of hardcore punk with grindcore and crust punk specific inspiration in hand, showcasing a somewhat typical sound for the time between their first demo (‘Demo MMXI‘, 2011) and a doubly aggressive debut LP (‘Deathrite‘, 2011) which’d been right there in the middle of a resurgence of extreme crust, grind and various other forms being railroaded by Black Breath, Nails and Trap Them among (many) others in similar/adjacent style. While they’d gotten notice from a broad spectrum of listeners from that first record their sound fully shifted to Swedish-style death metal territory on their second LP (‘Into Extinction‘, 2013). I wouldn’t say they were making waves as big as say, Mammoth Grinder at the time but they’d ended up on Prosthetic for their third album and eventually signed to Century Media Records for a fourth, revamped their overall line-up, and changed their style to include influences from death rock, black metal and the eerie death metal bands like (mid-era) Tribulation for their 2018 released ‘Nightmares Reign‘. The sudden third shift in style was probably jarring at the time since they’d lost the chunky Boss HM-2 guitar tones in favor of a more rocking, maybe even death n’ roll sounding step. I don’t know how popular it was at the time but in hindsight it’d been somewhat more original.

My introduction to Deathrite came with the ‘Delirium‘ EP back in 2022 where I’d categorized their work as “following the wind” which to me essentially means finding a path informed by myriad sensibilities, a psychedelic death-tinged heavy punk-infused thing that’d felt more personalized than ever with the addition of folks from bands like Kalmen and Abyssous further broadening their range. They’d never seemed like trend hoppers but a band that’d been noticed quickly and spun out into it before they’d decided exactly what they wanted to do beyond death metal/crust punk permutation. ‘Nightmares Reign‘ was a first step into their own and ‘Delirium‘ made it real, so, the functional purpose of ‘Flames Licking Fever‘ today is to compound that exploration of sub-genre and make their own gig out of it. In that sense you can expect a direct continuation of those previous two releases here as they’ll serve the best precedence for the shouting and twanging rush they’re up to today.

…And they arrive swinging, swaying on a guillotine edge as opener “Crippled Ego” drops its single-footed blasts and grinding, rocking trail-in to a ruckus comparable to Morbus Chron‘s endpoint (see also: “All Consuming Fire”) given additional swinging mayhem in its grooves. This is merely the step in and a dramatic entrance from the rafters, sure, but the punkish and wailing stomp of “Restless Eyes” gives us the grunting attitude of Tom G. Warrior-affronted extreme punk a la Obnoxious Youth but with psychedelic death metal dread spiking its way into the tumult. The effect of those first three pieces carries its own fast-draining momentum, dancing down the spiral as we hit the title track. Though this is a first natural peak in their action and a solid spread which shows the general range of what they’re up to on ‘Flames Licking Fever‘ there is much more to the album than its introductory pieces.

The dark energetic pulse of the album’s first third gets the microplastics in my brainstem juicing something fierce as we push through each song, though it was the Voivoid-esque chord wriggling touch that kicked off “Misanthropic Rush” that had me locking into the full listen and tapping my foot along to its dancing and d-beaten path. The dark, nigh blackened speed metallic rub of that song felt like the next level beyond previous material, an unexpected step that’d begin to form a landing pad for the momentum of the three songs prior to it. From that point the album kinda lights on fire for my own taste, weaving and dodging into the dancing blades of “A Slave to a Poisoned Soul”, easily one of the best and longest songs on ‘Flames Licking Fever‘ and part of this crucial all-killer run Deathrite have managed up front. Side A is all nauseated dread, a meandering mind unfurling its frustrated but still heavy-rocking dramatism.

Echoic vocals which snarl, grunt and wail with dread lead Deathrite with disillusioned character, guitar tones are both aggressive and gloom-stricken per their uglier harmonization, bass guitar tones are low-set as an anchor, and drums crash in forward-set space creating the resonant boundaries of the space depicted. Sound design definitely gives reasonable triangular parity between riffs, vocals and drums and appear specially tuned to let their knack for crossover feeling change-ups to have their best-possible impact (a la “Misanthropic Rush”) while still presenting something death metal adjacent in tone. Though production values, aesthetics, and general easy-flowing crossing of sub-genre paths don’t all overtake the songcraft in terms of importance here no doubt ‘Flames Licking Fever‘ is built on an eclectic and neatly attuned audiovisual experience and this is again most notable on pieces like “A Slave to a Poisoned Soul” where they’re just on fire in general.

It isn’t that Side B is lacking here but rather that Deathrite packed such non-stop action rich momentum into the first half of this album (the first three ‘singles’ were basically the first three songs) that they’d lost some potential flow within the less intentionally set ordering of the second half. They pick it back up with “Gallows Trail” and neocrust tinted bursts of “All Consuming Fire” to the point that ‘Flames Licking Fever‘ has a definite, fairly uniform shape in terms of all-over printed interest but I’d primarily remember this album for its first half; The overall effect of the full listen is consistent in its presentation and clever authorship, carrying some manner of dread-built and darkened finesse into a well-characterized set of songs that never truly miss or pad the ~45 minute experience. While Side B doesn’t detract from the full listen here it doesn’t escalate the authorship that these folks set such a high standard for outright, only just holding that standard with some reasonable near-parity. As such the full listen, front to back ride through ‘Flames Licking Fever‘ is front-loaded to satisfying enough results which still carry some electrifying value over. Still an awesome spin though it definitely doesn’t break through beyond that point into anything new or brain melting as it burns on.

If their quest is to find what potential exists within for an original, or at least unique sound and style Deathrite have achieved something strangely intoxicating, captivating in the blurred sub-genre lines and heavier rocking death metallic stretch of ‘Flames Licking Fever‘. The swinging, tormented clap of their hardcore punk spirited extremism is eerily confident here, intentional enough that every snaking movement will achieve its heady psychic dread one way or another as they burrow and burst through each song. Throw in a trip of an album cover and an overall repeatable (but again, front-loaded) run through and I’d found this album well above average in every sense. A high recommendation.

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