Hailing into view with morbid regalia aflare and crushed into form by mangle-hungered hands Gdańsk, Poland-based death/thrash metal quartet PANDEMIC OUTBREAK return with new membership and increased precision in tow for this ante-upping sophomore full-length album. Still built around the high-rate accost of late 80’s death/thrash metal and death metal beyond their work on ‘Torment Beyond Comprehension‘ dabbles in fine examples of melodic death and even some technically impressive weave as this more “pro” and less rehearsal room scratched album is set to impress. Though I’m not sure every riff here is an outright hit their puzzling together of classics minded tastes into slick yet confrontational blur is an admirable feat and a solid full listen for anyone prone to gel with new takes on the higher standards of old.

Pandemic Outbreak formed circa late 2014 between guitarist/vocalist Mateusz Mencel and drummer Szymon initially inspired by neothrash a la Toxic Holocaust and metalpunk in general but when (now former) guitarist Paweł Snarski (Frightful) joined in 2016 inspiration was pulled more heavily from ‘old school’ death metal and classic death/thrash. It is worth checking out this sea-change within the span of their first two EPs but the contrast between the band’s impressive debut LP (‘Skulls Beneath the Cross‘, 2021) and this new one may potentially prove just as striking in development. In each case a change in the line-up has prompted some new development but this time around their work probably shouldn’t be compared so directly with early Vader and Merciless (Sweden) any longer. Instead nodes of melodic death metal and Floridian death metal become the rooting for most of what we experience up front.

When I pressed play on opener “Beyond My Comprehension” I think it caught me a little bit too off-guard to hear what was essentially something like ‘Independent Thought Patterns‘ with its transitional gaps and introduction filled by mid-90’s melodic death metal movement. This is only compounded by the vibrant dust-up into “Primitive Instincts” right afterward where Swedish melodic death and a more callous death-thrashing hand work together while avoiding the strange melodeath-thrash/groove hand of the late 90’s. With all of that in mind Pandemic Outbreak make a first impression still very much in line with classicist taste levels only they’ve propped some of their more interesting developments and freshened capabilities up front. Part of this could be the result of newly added second guitarist Mateusz Gorczyński of Perpetual and drummer Dawid Guzialowski (Zenith, Necromästery) bringing different, or, additional aptitudes to this new material. Overall we could accuse them of being more technical, precise and more intricately woven in to form per this opening salvo.

With that said we’re just as quickly struck by the axe-arc of “Tales of the Slaughter” and this is perhaps the more expected evolution of the band’s sound which still speaks the language of auld death metal and retains its kinship with pure speed/thrash metal on more than a basal level. From that point the riffs flow the songs congest with the greater haul of interest shared by these folks but all is now more neatly presented, void of scars and blood as the rough edges of their extreme thrash beginnings have been voided by extremely clean drumming in particular. While this doesn’t work for the sort of generic change-ups that feature on “Confess Your Sins” it does accentuate the Morbid Angel-cum-Vader scratch and squeal death metal of “Consumed by Flames” (see also: certain riffs on “Left for Vultures”) which likewise showcases amped-up treatment of lead guitar solos. The precision is there and the energy is brutal enough that ‘Torment Beyond Comprehension‘ really just hurls by quicker than its ~38 minutes suggests leaving it prime for revisitation in the future.

For all the groove-heavy, riff focused hammering that occurs in the middle portion of Pandemic Outbreak‘s latest it is no surprise that they’ve gilded both the introduction and exit from the full listen with some manner of technical and melodic interest. This finds “Impaled” pre-empting their exodus with some more technical swipes and bass guitar inversions within its rush before closer “Ripped to Pieces” gives us a showing of rhythmic finesse via its rattled and trill-heavy riffcraft. Those are the most memorable parts of the full listen and the remainder of it, again largely the middle portion, features somewhat hit-or-miss bullet fed aggression some of which borrows from elite death-thrash metal attack while inserting some bad habits of post-millennium thrash or neothrash ideas.

While I don’t know that I’d talk up each and every riff here they are all performed with increasing aptitude as Pandemic Outbreak retain their congested, fiery blaze throughout. That is enough to sate the death-thrash hunger pangs within the mind even if it isn’t the cold and ugly underground death-thrash record I’d gone in expecting. Still, it does end up being another above-average work from these folks, a work with embellishment enough to leave me curious as to where they’re headed with all that is new herein. A moderately high recommendation.

---