Set in suspended animation for over a decade before being given a completely fresh carapace to be reawakened within Madrid, Spain-based death metal quintet AVULSED is both a delivery upon the expectations of an eighth full-length album and a bit of a fresh start for their long-running menace. In fact ‘Phoenix Cryptobiosis‘ directly addresses a crash out of stasis and a fiery return as an Ancient One arisen to awe-inspiring cataclysm. Though they are often best remembered for blood, tits, and brutal grooves the holistic ‘old school’ built vision of this band persists where an unbridled appreciation for the various reaches of the classics-era stuff find equal representation between brutality, melodicism, and harrowing gloom… you’ll find a familiar voice in pure death metal here per the vocals and compositional bones in hand yet there is some manner of refreshed “modern” life put into this record’s sound which aims bigger and heavier while making sure to not leave the old heads and die-hards behind.

Avulsed formed by way of Dave Rotten (Christ Denied, Holycide, Xtreem Music, et al.) circa 1991 after having spent a couple of years involved in the Madrid-area heavy/extreme metal scenery and starting an infamous label (Drowned Productions a year earlier) that’d found quick kinship with the Scandinavian death metal underground. Appreciation for the Finnish and Swedish death metal of the time had a strong influence upon their original sound between a moldering first demo tape (‘Embalmed in Blood‘, 1992) and the more immediately recognizable sound of their second tape (‘Deformed Beyond Belief‘, 1993) where Rotten‘s deep growls and the gloomier, mid-paced step of their work hit closer to the Finnish death side of things and was probably slightly better recorded than more immediate peers in Spain at the time. Up until a decade or so ago I’d always liked those early tapes best but their debut LP (‘Eminence in Putrescence‘, 1996) eventually caught on with me for its balance of brutality, melodicism, unique vocals, a representative fusion of inspiration (Demigod, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Cannibal Corpse, Swedeath, et al.) at the time, summing all they’d done up to that point and making it bigger, uglier. That is the major extent of my fandom and knowledge of the band up until 2013 or so when they’d switched back to using illustrated album art.

On the long seven album walk-up toward ‘Phoenix Cryptobiosis‘ the three full-length albums released between 2003 and 2009 are entirely consistent in developing groove stricken, brutal, and sometimes surprisingly melodic death metal with a (then) modern enough production values and gory as fuck presentation. My fandom takes me toward ‘Stabwound Orgasm‘ (1999) as the catalyst for a lot of that exploration and I don’t know if they topped it that decade beyond a few of the Carcass-esque pieces on ‘Nullo (The Pleasure of Self-Mutilation)‘ (2009). I wouldn’t say each album is essential unless you’re a completionist but I’d also say I don’t think Avulsed have ever released a bad record, though my taste lines up closer to the mold-spanked ancient stuff by default. The band’s most recent LP ‘Ritual Zombi‘ (2013) is underrated, repeating the successes of ‘Eminence in Putrescence‘ and… it is the bar that I’d set for ‘Phoenix Cryptobiosis‘ even if most of the long-standing lineup, some around since the 90’s, left the band in 2024 and all spots besides Rotten‘s were filled by folks from Krueger, Holycide, and Sepulcration.

Deeply growled vocals, trudging thick death metal riffs, ominous brutality and invaginated ghastly melodicism… these might be generalized notions of the Avulsed signature looking back upon their long history but there’s no telling how fresh hands will treat those auld ideals in flux. I wouldn’t say that ‘Phoenix Cryptobiosis‘ leans back into brutality harder, nor does it reach for outright kick-back “retro” death but more-or-less repeats the notes given to ‘Ritual Zombi‘ in terms of covering those bases and making a tuneful death metal record out of it. As the wavering lead guitar melody to introductory piece “Limbs Regeneration” hits we’re getting atmospheric dread and uncertain dark tides up front and it already feels like this isn’t going to be phoned-in slop as the Slayer-esque intro to opener “Lacerate to Dominate” wings into its Bolt Thrower-esque tanking about. Old bones direct a somewhat different sound as they roll through yet this is already close enough to the follow-up I was seeking as an intermittent fan.

For an album that presents itself as a rebirth beyond an intentional, survival-dependent dormancy the first thing longtime fans should notice is a different level of hi-fi production applied, a fresh level of wall-to-wall bombast caked up with more guitar layers than I recall hearing on any of Avulsed‘s past records. Part of this comes from mastering from Davide Billia who’d done a great job with the latest Holycide and Aposento records, and some engineering/mixing from new guitarist Alejandro Lobo. I’m not sure if the songs hit me as quick as this level of sonic affront and the spectacle of Lobos‘ playing, wielding a 16-string/dual-neck guitar and harmonizing old and new Avulsed songs with two hands on the spot, took my attention away from the record for a solid few hours down a YouTube rabbit hole. The bones and the flesh of the machine came alive upon return listens and though a few pieces on the album are somewhat nondescript it feels like a proper addition to the band’s repertoire which also opens the door to some unique technical flair which still suits the tone of their gig.

As we watch the event horizon rear-up and the cascade ensue the galloping Swedeath trod of “Blood Monolith” didn’t hit right away for my own taste but the quicker, gorier slip of “Unrotted” felt like a return to the late 90’s/early 2000’s transition for Avulsed and piqued my interest. The title track (“Phoenix Cryptobiosis”) has a sort of clanking Gorement feeling roar-and-dive lean to some of its movement, recalling the more swinging moments from Putrevore to some degree too… but I’ll be honest I’ve always shown up for the kind of Bill Steer-feeling riffs on any given record from these folks and “Devotion for Putrefaction” was the one to cleave the skull, give my brains a shot of livelier worming movement. They do well to hold onto that thread for a few songs and generally held my interest best with those intricate, groove heavy Carcass-esque moments.

The running order doesn’t flow with any particular intention, there are a couple too-many songs (eight would’ve been fine) and a few of these pieces don’t fit within the larger puzzle of the full spin… but these are complaints I’d had about ‘Stabwound Orgasm‘ and ‘Ritual Zombi‘ too and in the long run some manner of excess and not overthinking it is part of the old school charm found on any Avulsed record. They’re here to play death metal and get on the road and this album hits some manner of memorable target at least half the time and the devil is in the details (riffs, basically) otherwise. Any other criticism I could offer is pretty universal to any death metal release today where I’d typically want more variety of pace and tone on an album that probably shouldn’t feel like it was whipped together one after another in harried fashion. Either way ‘Phoenix Cryptobiosis‘ hits the necessary nodes that an album from this band should and presents their songs in all-pro style, reawakening the beast and offering a level of polish that doesn’t smear away the patina of ‘old school’ death attunement entirely. A moderately high recommendation.

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