Transmogrified from warriors to wanderers by the alienated thrum of death metal’s latest still-crumbling renaissance Brasília, Brazil-based quintet COSMOPHAGE reintroduce themselves as a gnarled eater of worlds on this debut demo EP. Now issued into physical reality beyond digitized captivity ‘Sidereal Malignancy‘ is a fine example of ‘old school’ standards applied to freely built craft, a riff-driven stretch of 90’s worthy ideas unwilling to obfuscate its voice yet eager to mutate the usual forms. Their work here offers a promising omen, high potentiate skill visible from afar which is ready to be stretched and bent into even more grandiose and personae rich statement over time.

Cosmophage formed circa 2018 as a quartet under their original name Utterance via a slightly different configuration where rhythm guitarist Matheus Alpino also served as vocalist. Under that first flag they’d released an impressive digital EP (‘Conflagration‘, 2019) displaying some interest in the atypical strikes of peak early 90’s North American death given some obscure Swedish and Finnish atmosphere depending where the riffs took them. The band went on hiatus in 2020 and returned in 2022 under their current name with a new vocalist who was eventually replaced by Diogo Dantas (who also provides synth and some engineering here) by the time they’d recorded ‘Sidereal Malignancy‘ in 2024. It’d been released digitally late last year and now Blood Harvest and Me Saco Un Ojo are releasing it in physical editions alongside mentions of a full-length already being in motion.

A combination of non-linear riffcraft, some erratic rhythmic play (“Decaying Entropy”) and a love for ‘The Erosion of Sanity‘ finds this first strike brutal, harried in its estranged maul after Cosmophage‘s complete reconfiguration. As I’m sure many other folks will based on the cover art and band name I’d stepped into their portal expecting to hear some manner of Demilichian Finndeath at an irregular creep but instead much of this material approximates ‘Interdimensional Extinction‘-era Blood Incantation in its movement and earlier Tomb Mold in arrangement but otherwise maintains a circa ’94 death metal standard for moshable, riff-forward strikes. Title track “Sidereal Malignancy” is their most straightforward example here, “Decaying Entropy” is the stick in the spokes here in terms of disrupting expectations as the guitarists peck away at equally atmospheric and spastic ideas.

While the hammer lain down here is not necessarily straight forward ‘old school’ gear the riffs are all respectable and overall readable statements, aiming for a high level of action without resorting to the dumbest plainness in any case. The classic ride and roar of their sound does have a certain early Netherlands pure death metal (Gorefest, Sinister, et al.) ring to it as things get increasingly percussive (“Devourment of the Ur-Plagued”) but we don’t fully get the stink of their attitude anywhere on this album until the wailing and chunking plow of closer “Inner Plagues (Of Disfigured Entities)” starts to dig into its heavier grooves and most involved riffcraft, even reaching for some of those off-step Finnish death rhythms along the way. The longer the song the more riffs these guys put into their machine and I’d quickly found the more dense the composition the better Cosmophage fared in terms of catching my attention.

As an overall introduction to Cosmophage ‘Sidereal Malignancy‘ is cool enough in the sense that twists both classic ‘old school’ and revisionist/modern death metal ideas at the spine, wrenching some manner of precious fluid with a lot of nerve to it per the overall gnarly jam of the EP. While this is entertaining it doesn’t yet have a central knack, an immediate voice in its presentation that establishes a presence beyond showing up and getting a little bit weird with their rhythms. That said the density of their actions is thrilling enough that I hear plenty of promise in their craft. If they don’t fuck with this frequency and keep up the attack going forward consider me a fan based on the way this introduction sorts itself out. A high recommendation.

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