An ancient mind locked within a realm of rotten reverie beyond death for decades New Jersey-borne and now Charlotte, North Carolina-based death metal quartet DETERIOROT sculpt their waves to reflect a psyche shattering the portal away from the lost realm of dreams on this characteristic fourth full-length album. Embattled with their own rendition of late 80’s/early 90’s death metal since birth and reborn at least twice since ‘Awakening‘ speaks to the possibilities of authenticity derived from an entity steadied largely by their own hand and produced in-house. That is to suggest that with capability comes control and ripe ideation to follow where we find this auld underground name still largely resembling themselves as they were ~thirty five years ago yet nonetheless finding a best version in pursuit. The result is a shambling-raw and indelicate monstrosity, a fine example of mid-paced and gut churning classics brained death metal.

Vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter Paul Zavaleta formed Deteriorot after disbanding Mortuary somewhere nearby 1990 taking the two folks responsible for that band’s ‘Infernal Torment‘ tape along with. I don’t have access to any of those tapes from their most formative years (’88-’90) available but we do have their 1991 recorded first 7″ (‘Ceremonies of Blasphemy‘, 2015) as an archive of their first session under the new name and it smokes. The rotten guitar sound on those recordings is maybe the clearest indication of where their ears were at back when high school aged, conscious of Scandinavian death metal from Carnage to Convulse but not divorced from some kind of Autopsy and/or Incantation informed ideal. Their approach was brutal, nigh bestial even by 1992 when they’d returned for ‘Demo ’92‘ still bearing their own mid-paced gloom but adding a lead guitarist who was skilled beyond the noodling found on their unreleased first 7″. The peak of this era of the band was undoubtedly their first official 7″ release (‘Manifested Apparitions of Unholy Spirits‘, 1993) and this was both my introduction to the band and the standard I generally expect of all of their work as sludgier, downtuned and doomed pure death metal with a deep and imposing growl emanating from within. The title track remains one of the best songs they’ve written to date.

While we could argue on the best versions of certain songs over the years the whole of Deteriorot‘s original early legacy is more-or-less contained and idealized within their debut LP (‘In Ancient Beliefs‘, 2001). Both Zavaleta and original drummer Jon Brody were more capable musicians at that point and that’d transformed their 90’s writ material revealing more of their nods to Finndeath and some different voicing. The version of that album I’ve linked is the original but it was apparently a botched rendering they’ve corrected between two different remasters since. I am the type to let history remain flawed and still prefer the original. I’ve gone on about the long years of development here for the sake of illustrating my own fandom and their place in the New Jersey death metal underground pantheon but also to highlight the main reasons you might not know their name. This third era of the band, all three full-lengths beyond that point, which we are witnessing today fulfill the dream that circumstance prevented for decades prior as Zavaleta‘s work remains fixated on his own ideation of ‘old school’ death metal.

With Brody having left the band in 2022 Deteriorot‘ve been largely staffed by folks from Kentucky-based death metal band Redivider since. With most of the same folks involved you’ll find ‘Awakening‘ follows the modus, sound and style found on ‘The Rebirth‘ (2023) apart from Zavaleta producing/engineering this new album while also onboarding new second guitarist Arthur Reid (ex-Krvsade). This means the homebrewed feeling of their legacy is intact and their style remains steadfastly in the realm of bands like Slugathor, Disma and Gorement where dark and tuned lower-towared-Hell sounds find their biggest impact at a mid-pace and with a sort of early Bolt Thrower informed sense of direction. Opener the “The Flame” speaks to the signature of the band in this way with its roll n’ roar verses and melted out refrains but it is “In Battle to Survive” that first deepens those dual guitar interactions into a fully grinding monstrosity. I don’t know that style/inspiration is that big a talking point here and I could just as well suggest this is just one of the better captures of the band’s sound to date, including just tighter playing altogether.

Beyond sounding as in-tune and time as possible Deteriorot have done well to incorporate Zavaleta‘s gaseous, guttural vocals into these songs in more active ways than we’d found on the lacking portions of the two prior LPs. Not only are they faceted into the odd-stalking riffs of songs like “Horrors in an Everlasting Nightmare” or pure doom lurching a la “Programmed by Fear” with purpose but he’s resorted to more sputtering and snarling than ever. This lends a sort of realistic, rehearsal room grade feeling to the record which fans of demo-era early 90’s death metal the band’d spawned from will appreciate. He’s done a great job of pushing it to the point of unavoidable personage and a truly rotten, deranged ‘old school’ death metal sound and not the blandly polished, forced consistency we find in a lot of backwards-looking death metal today.

Cutting it back to pure and cinching their songcraft down to whipping a few riffs, catching enough of a vibe and moldering off means ‘Awakening‘ reads as a tightening of the reigns on a no less zombified beast. Deteriorot‘ve avoided sitting on any one song idea for more than ~3-4 minutes and cut the album right around the sub-forty minute mark ensuring that the whole of the record speaks to their own conglomerated style moreso than some of their more referential turns taken. The only song I’d felt didn’t gel with the full listen was the galloping ’til shambling mess of “Deliver Us From Fiction” which’d read to me as a quick throwaway idea compared to the more deliberate songs that’d surrounded it, though the solo at the end of “A Ghost in the Mirror” is just as weak. That said I’d felt the parity of quality riffcraft and dark, doomed atmosphere was solid between each half of the experience per the first four tracks and the bulk Side B (“In Silence”, “Programmed by Fear” esp.) as it all held up to repeated listens in general. As a longtime fan I showed up for a real, unfiltered ‘old school’ death metal record with a monstrous soil-bound presence and that is what they’ve delivered here. A moderately high recommendation.

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