Bound skull to skull with the reaper in a horrifying display of knotted-together tongues and grotesque digits an embodiment of Phthisis goes on worming its putrid caress into all-encompassing morbid descent on this debut full-length album from Los Angeles, California-based death metal quartet PUTRESCENT. Where death and rotten decay conspire as sickly bedfellows so follows the blood-crusted hammer strength of this crew’s handle upon the riff, capturing the nauseated motion of classic death metal as they take ‘Darkness Embraced‘ as true directive on their downward-sinking path. Aiming to scrape these sounds back to pure wrath and achieving a new suffocating low in passage, these fellows’ve managed an undeniable ideal here on their first long-player.

Putrescent formed at some point prior to the release of their first demo tape (‘Inhuman Infestation‘, 2023) a close study of USDM affect which was aimed death metal’s darkest point of peak (pre-mainstreamed) impact between 1992-1993. Their sound was different than a lot of the Funebrarum and/or early Disma stoked tapes we’d gotten in the 2010’s in that it definitely carried some of that ‘Onward to Golgotha‘ spiritus in hand (and their sound still does) but also (potentially) carries a taste for early Cannibal Corpse and the bands they’d inspired within the sea-change of the early 90’s. That said their work is centered around the abrupt and quaking mill of early Incantation and Immolation due to the lack of groove-centered songwriting which we find in most classic European death metal of a certain era. Because all three of those demo songs have rightfully ended up on this EP in their final form I don’t know how necessary a trek back to their first tape is beyond appreciating how they’ve developed those songs in the last couple of years.

Beyond an acoustic intro (“Infinite Darkness”) opener/title track “Darkness Embraced” immediately begins punching out its scaling and dirging riffcraft, taking the galloped trod and bestial whip of early 90’s death metal and creating uninterrupted transitions into more scrambled-loose riffs. Creating rhythmic tension and never fully shattering it apart makes for a series of riffs which have no chill at all, roaring and grinding on their push through. You can kind of feel the line-ups relevant to Insineratehymn (per bassist Demitree Rivera and drummer Abraham Garcia) in this sense where there is nothing coy or playful about their crush of the tempo map, they hammer and bend these songs in their forge to brutal effect.

Beyond that point Putrescent do not take a single breath as the opener bleeds directly into “Putrid Piles of Human Flesh”, showcasing the hiss of their chunkier mid-range beefed main rhythm guitar tone by letting it ring and ripple across the more harried movement of the song. I’d particularly liked this guitar tone, their searing overdriven sound which avoids a fully scooped out result via bass guitar taking on the heavier low end, supporting the mind-ripping level of distortion they’re sporting otherwise. Drums are set aback but not so far in the distance that we miss any key details. The snare hits/fills arrive at chest level, cymbals crash a bit higher in stereo and the bass drumming is tuned closer to the bass guitar movement allowing for the grooves that do mount up to sync into an unholy growl.

There are some sluggish riffs that don’t quite hit the clip that the drums do on “Sepulchral Desecration” though I’d still mark it as one of the more representative, inspired songs on this album which takes its straight forward blasting death metal attack to a fast-cracking whip. The cold, murderous strike of the beat supports an almost deathgrind swerve to the main riffs on the song via simple enough techniques that immerse yet stop short of any kind of technical ambition for the sake of a raw and cutting form of ‘old school’ death metal aggression. The shorter, roughened crack through “Spectral Sanctum” is more direct and naturally less complex in its blaze through its riffs as the band envision the afterlife as a graveyard of suffering not-so dissimilar to everyday life. In passage from Side A to the second half I think the only reference I’d wanted to mention is the trampling, cyclonic force of early Drawn and Quartered especially as we touch upon the doomed yet galloping thrust of Side B with revamped demo-era piece “Obscure Putrescent Growls of Death”. For my own taste this passage from the fourth song through the sixth is an ideal tonal development of an album obsessing over life, death and rethinking them as antipode and moreso interconnected realms. Also, some of the best riffs on the album art chopped through within that same span.

From there Putrescent only continue to impress with the protracted doomed introduction to their ~9 minute opus in “Black Ceremony”, a natural highlight of Side B and a change of pace beyond the more harried, anxious brutality found on the rest of the album. The band’s sound is perfectly suited for death/doom metal expand via the raw/rugged USDM whip of ‘Darkness Embraced‘ and its production values but they’ve no shortage of riffs built into this song which suit that ‘Onward to Golgotha‘ pummel and roll just as well. The lingering gloom of that song feeds album closer “Inhuman Infestation” as a tributary which, helps to distinguish Side B from the first half in a more direct way. Putrescent set themselves apart a bit more in reaching for that extended length song and reinforcing it with the closing piece, not only adding an unexpectedly doomed dimension to their sound but giving the ear more than a couple of tempos to work with on the ride through.

A malevolent, ominous and slowly torn down to doom record in an appreciably ‘old school’ spirit deserves, or, requires a memorable album cover and I think Australian artist Stewart Cole (@rotten_realm) has done well to capture rotten death metal apropos scenery while indicating Putrescent‘s muse with sickly coloration. The red apocalyptic invaze in the distance and the howling rotted corpse in the foreground aren’t drastic in their contrast and this makes for a warm and bloodied-sick illustration which suits the general arc presented by ‘Darkness Embraced‘; Though I’ve heard countless records in this particular style over the years these folks manage to achieve a thrillingly traditional result I can get behind listening to on repeat for the sake of riffcraft and general intensity. Their ability to create and then toy with the brutal tension and pacing of death metal ensures these ~36 minutes aren’t restful so much as they are crammed with ideas ’til the gas starts to run dry at the endpoint. For the underground death metal fan this one should be an essential grab for this month and especially if you’re big on the brutality and gloom available to USDM in the early 90’s. A very high recommendation.

NOTE: Vinyl version of ‘Darkness Embraced‘ will release June 20th, all other formats June 6th.

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