• …YOU MISSED • As part of our yearly recap the …You Missed series attempts to collect interesting releases I’d otherwise missed, didn’t cover, or didn’t appreciate until later. This is -NOT- a best of, but a collection of interesting curios worth mentioning as we reflect upon the year. // In an attempt to be more conversational these are more easygoing and casual than longform reviews, so relax and think for yourself. — If you find something you dig go tell the band on social media and support them with a purchase! If you’d like your music reviewed, read the FAQ and send promos to: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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San Jose, California-based quartet MORTAL definitely recall the 80’s-into-90’s step death metal had taken, shaking off some of the pure thrash metal wizardry of the riff while focusing on the brutal tech available to a post-‘Deicide‘ and ‘Altars of Madness‘ world. With that said their sound has the early 90’s dirtied up Los Angeles underground (see: The Heralds of Oblivion compilation #1, 1993) thrust to it, maniac riffs that emulate a hundred stabbing motions amidst garage-level lead guitar scrambling you might find in old records from Silent Scream or the debut from Insanity. For my own taste this is a nigh perfect expression of death metal in compact, no bullshit form coming from an honest place where the acrobatic feats of the drums and the guitars are the major directive and they reflect a band fresh out of their grinding away in the rehearsal space. A record like this is exactly in the spirit of the original death metal movement and despite a lot of quick and banged-out songs (love the Cryptic Slaughter feeling groove on “Chapel of Bones”) they’ve got damned riffs and some memorable ideas to chuck around here as they bash through. Definitely one of those records I walk away thinking “never change” because ‘As Life Leaves the Body‘ hits just right and only for as long as it needs to.

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Edinburgh, Scotland-based ‘old school’ death metal trio TYMVOS appear to be a merger of talents from their greater area aiming for a sound which reflects the prime era of death metal’s step into the 90’s on this debut LP. ‘World of Abominations‘ is a wild ride of a record in terms of riffs as one moment we’re getting the groovier side of mid-era Benediction and the next they’re thrashing at the Floridian side of things landing those Death-esque linear riffs (“Serpent’s Temple”) or stamping harder a la sludgier later 90’s-era Morbid Angel (“World of Abominations”) all while cutting dive-bombed leads and scattering their impact with plenty of double-bass drum kicked stretch. It all hits like a salad of familiar elements to start but a pretty damned great death metal record ultimately bubbles up from the stew generated. I’d found myself listening to this album often, not only for its referential style and a broad range of song types but for the sake of it being a potent bruiser throughout its ~35 minutes and not fucking around with any lazy shit.

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Vic, Spain-based death metal duo BLACKSHROUD can do no wrong on this debut EP, an uncannily morbid ‘old school’ minded burst of doom and lumbering death which captured my attention from the very first listen. ‘The Archaic Horrors‘ comes from the mind of musician S.B.E. who has been a fixture as guitarist in black/death metal group Ereb for quite some time and had a stint in Graveyard as well for the ‘One With the Dead‘ album cycle. Here he has teamed up with the ever on-fire Marc Rodriguez (Sanctuarium, Trollcave, ex-Jade, et al.) for this debut EP. The focus of style here appears to take much from the early death/doom metal out of Scandinavia be it the graveyard gloom of early Finnish stuff or something slightly more straightforward like God Macabre. Not only is the fellowe a great guitarist in general but he has a knack for leads that add to the rotten atmosphere of these songs, be it the more melodious cyclic drapery or an explosive solo. The kicking Swedeath punkishness of this record works particularly well as they dart between slower, heavier moments (see: “Beyond Salvation”.) Production values are properly ragged, spacious and sinister and all manner of presentation remains bleak and violent without any cheesy “fun” shit detracting from the mood. “Darklands” is probably where I’d direct folks first though I didn’t feel like any of the pieces on this EP missed in any sense, definitely an artist to watch and another project which really doesn’t need any more refinement or paradigm shift to stand out.

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B.C./Alberta, Canada-based death metal quartet IMMORTAL FORCE arrive upon their debut full-length aiming for the spiritus of 80’s ’til 90’s thrashing death, horrified and macabre in their action as they aim for the true underground of the United States death metal mind during the most grassroots upswing. Their sound is probably overall closer to ‘Cool Mortification‘-era Krabathor with less of the groove n’ pinch harmonic trading riffs on main and of course the punkish/grinding stuff Paul Speckmann leaned into on parts of ‘Collection of Souls‘, alternately it seems they’re big fans of the death metal side of Napalm Death early on as evidenced by the “Suffer the Children” cover they’ve set smack dab in the middle of the album. Either way this ultimately results in riffs, plenty of strange variety pumped into an ancient looking and sounding record that’d made a lasting impression from the first listen. I dunno if ‘Mystic Seance Unrealities‘ blew me away with any one standout moment here so much as I’d appreciated the strong personality they’d developed, recalling the most over the top, unkempt thrash ’til death personae from the peak of Midwest death metal.

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Berlin, Germany-based technical death metal quintet MAAT return for a third full-length album here and waste no time making a loud and brutal first impression… and that may ultimately work for-and-against them as the well-attuned listener will hear the tradition of Nile influenced death metal as well as the late 90’s/early 2000’s Polish death metal zeitgeist in their work. There are of course legions of bands that sound(ed) like this and similarly carry a reverence for the specificity of Egyptian mythos and arabesque riffcraft in the way that Maat do but that doesn’t necessarily detract from the level of polish they’ve put into this third LP. For my own taste the best moments on this album go slightly more abstract (“Bound to the Throne”, “Perennial Bliss”) often enough to generate some level of hypnotic charm beyond the brutal severity of their work. If you are a fan of Hideous Divinity and Nomad (Poland) there should be plenty to like here, especially if you’ve the patience to experience the turning point that happens mid-album as their focus continues to expand on atmospheric ideas.

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A couple of years ago the very wise Fredrik S. from southeastern Norway mentioned a couple of promising death metal related ‘local’ bands (Ingenium, Corroder, Bolverk, etc.) in recommendation and we’ve heard from each of them a bit since 2022 but the one I’ve been really anticipating most is Oslo-based death metal trio RUUN who’ve finally followed up their brilliant debut LP (‘Impermanence‘, 2022) with this 7″/single. If you’ve not heard their first album it was recently issued on CD by Chaos Records and remains a brilliant gem from the Scandinavian death metal underground. This material, two songs and about ten minutes of ‘old school’ afflicted aggression, finds the band taking big-stinking downtuned grooves and showing what sort of havoc they can create with their imaginative treatment of the riff. The title track here has a sort of Azagthothian slither to its main riff as it develops, grinding and releasing its fumes in violently strafed motions and eventually coming unwound as it progresses. The other half “Parasomnia” packs a bit more detail in a snappier groove, showing off the elasticity of their movement. I’d say this functions as a good demo of things to come, not sure if these are programmed drums or not but based on past and present work this is one of a few newer bands I’m most looking forward to what’s to come next, if anything.

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A quick glance at this debut full-length from Phoenix, Arizona-based quartet ETERNAL and I’d gone in expecting some manner of HM-2 obsessed fart in the wind kind of record… but ‘Cryptic Lust‘ turned out to be nothing as expected. The front to back ride through this ten song record spares the listener no riff, attacking with as many ominous and cutting rhythmic daggers as they can manage in about ~40 minutes (plus a Mayhem cover at the end). They end up covering so much ground here, showcasing a broad taste in all manner of ‘old school’ death metal phenotypes that I couldn’t help but admire their smart implementation of many thrashing, doomed and occasionally kinda brutal movements/song types. The whole thing flows brilliantly start to finish and finds a badass riff to carry each song with and does so without every drying up or blandly repeating itself. For me one of the more surprising debuts for classics minded death metal this year.

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Once again I have unwisely overlooked an album from New Jersey’s ALTAR OF GORE and their primitively slapped haunt. Album number two from these folks doesn’t at all lack in terms of the dungeon-grinding depth its atmosphere achieves but this time things are a bit clearer-set as I’ve found it easier to make out the drone of the riffs and the callous clubbed-at nature of the drums. Self-produced grime and Resonance Sound Studios mastering gives ‘Litanies of the Unceasing Agonies‘ a feral but focused quality that I’d enjoyed returning to for the slower leaning riffs (“Infinite Visions of Violence”, “Carrion Womb”) they’ll often roll into a la Archgoat without fully breaking into punkish war metallic noise or caverncore. Distorted bass and real-ass drumming with its own punishing bruise to it helped make this one memorable for me and I think if you liked the first record this one will be just as fucked up and primally struck but maybe easier to leave on repeat and get lost in.

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Tallinn, Estonia-based death metal quintet DECEITOME is notably fronted by the fellow behind Forgotten Sunrise, one of the countries earliest notable death metal exports, yet the style of this self-titled sophomore full-length album uses an HM-2 bustin’ ‘old school’ Scandinavian death metal sound as its baseline. Their work may very well appear standard in its gait to start but soon establishes more of a meandering hand a la the first Horrid (Italy) album which was likewise heavily inspired by Dismember past and present when considering the melodic leads and such which crop up throughout. Otherwise their sound veers into more atmospheric movements here and there as the ~40 minute heave of the record looks for new realms to stretch out into and they land on some Deteriorot and Fleshcrawl sized buzzers as they carry on with it. Solid death metal record and one I’d returned to a few times despite being kinda bored with this type of guitar sound for some time now.

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Finnish brutal bestial death metal trio UNSALVATION offer a sensorial dive into hellish eternal warfare with their third and most extreme full-length album. ‘Qliphothian Protocol Jihad‘ is built around screaming broken speakers and plodding, unfathomable wreckage which borders on unreadable psychedelic whorl much of the time. Though I couldn’t pick out too many riffs from the fray there is a dementia to this experience which seems to intentionally avoid anything less than destructive chaos centered around battery and downtuned riffcraft. Beyond the vortex of blackened noise and beneath the waves of dissociative death metal this record is beyond surreal, anxiously grinding at the bit, and makes for an interesting medium which compliments the work of Jyotiṣavedāṅga and earlier Tetragrammicide in an indirect way.

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