Calling down doom and meteoric devastation Montréal, Quebec-based death metal quartet SERPENT CORPSE return for a steadfast EP a couple of years beyond their impressive debut album. Substantial in its thread yet unflinching in stature ‘Retaliate‘ both continues and matures the band’s signature slap and stomp approach as the band restates their merger of pure death metal stride with a hardened, punkish thrashing thread. In some sense you’re getting more of what they were up to in the past, a longer piece or a bigger riff sparking up here and there, but at no point do they leave their work lacking in the potency returning fans will show up for.

Serpent Corpse have been around since 2020 and after a preliminary demo in 2021 they’d impressed as an addition to the (now defunct) Temple of Mystery roster per their extremely well curated and intensive debut LP ‘Blood Sabbath‘. At the time in review I’d described their sound as death-doomed metalpunk, wanting to emphasize the hardcore punk and thrash metal influences that’d helped their work to stand out. If cheaper, thoughtless death metal/hardcore dregs hadn’t polluted the field so heavy at that point I think more folks would’ve taken a closer ear to their gig but either way I’d found the quality ear and eye of it all way above average. Though the band’ve undergone some line-up changes more recently I believe this release was recording with mostly the same line-up found on ‘Blood Sabbath‘ and it finds that signature stomp sustained here in general as they venture further and wider.

Opener “Brazen Serpent” leans into the best of what we’d found on the band’s LP up front, pushing their riff-forward ‘old school’ death metal ideal for an appropriately stomping arrival. Their style is once again pretty straight forward classics-minded death metal in spirit as they find a groove quick within this opening number and at first it seems nothing much as changed, they’re still carrying some of those shades of Obituary and Black Breath back in mind but also a sort of ‘Arise‘-era Sepultura stomp creeping in at the end of the piece.

“Iron Corpse” brings some of the Autopsy-esque kinda doomed riffs back into the fold, some slower trudging movement but the real moment here comes as their guitar work develops into something “epic” around ~1:29 minutes in, a build toward the surprisingly savage break into thrashing riff ~2:38 minutes in. That might be the most inspired moment on the album and I’d appreciated how this song kind of flexes into that moment and emphases it. Though the band are sometimes labeled death metal/hardcore because of their kind of default kicking beat I’d say that there is much more to their gig, including an interest in the ’89-’91 peaking high of death-thrash and more based off of how these first two songs come together. If you’re a fan of Doldrey‘s more recent evolution you’ll appreciate this as each band take on a similar crossover of ideas, thrashing harder at it and keeping the riff count up.

Much as I think the more dense, thrashing side of Serpent Corpse is solid I’ve always felt their best songs balance that Florida death metal inspired sensibility with more exaggerative mid-paced strokes, something we hear a bit more on “The Undying” to start and within the ambitious ~9 minute closer “Meteor Summon” not long after. Those two pieces would end up being a major point of focus for my own taste as I took a closer listen to this ~26 minute EP. The best test of any band with compelling style and proper sound locked in is taking a scalpel to thier ability to take that ouevre in longer form chunks and making some kind of magic with it. I’d felt like “Meteor Summon” is the piece to prove they’ve got this one major mode locked in, the stalking and thrashing dynamic that runs through all of their stuff thus far, though it does feel like they’ve held fast to the well-proven territory of their debut and simply stretched it a bit.

If you’re stoked on more Serpent Corpse and arrive upon ‘Retaliate‘ wanting a continuation of and moderation elaboration upon the forms they’d introduced on their first album you’ll likely enjoy this record. I went in with this band’s sound pretty fresh in mind and was reminded why I’d heard more than just potential back in 2023. What this release doesn’t do is eclipse or roll past where they took it before, at least beyond playing around with some different movement and seeing what they could manage within some longer pieces. Beyond that thought I was glad to see the production values still bumping and the cover artwork (via Lucas Korte) delivering another fantastic scene. I’ll be interesting to see what they come up with in the future by way of a few big lineup changes but per this release these folks are still on a roll. A high recommendation.

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