…YOU MISSED • As part of our yearly recap the …You Missed series attempts to collect interesting releases I’d otherwise missed, didn’t cover, or didn’t appreciate until later. This is -NOT- a best of, but a collection of interesting curios worth mentioning as we reflect upon the year. // In an attempt to be more conversational these are more easygoing and casual than longform reviews, so relax and think for yourself. — If you find something you dig go tell the band on social media and support them with a purchase! If you’d like your music reviewed, read the FAQ and send promos to: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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Though one could probably count pre-1993 Norwegian death metal classics on one hand and maybe reach two dozen digging up old crusty demo tapes and rehearsals there aren’t a ton of full-lengths from peak death metal which’ve been universally flagged as important. CADAVER are one of just a few who’d not only managed a full-length (at all) during that era but put out two influential releases, not the least of which was ‘In Pains…‘ (1992). I’ve begun with this point because their latest LP, ‘Hymns of Misanthropy‘, appears to be a complex workaround for the expensive and likely frustrating task of reissuing/remastering that infamous record via Earache. This is speculation on my part, of course, but anyone who has spent enough serious time with this band’s discography as a whole will find rearranged, recreated, and kind of rethought versions of pieces from that second album and even one from their 2001 record. Their efforts also include session work from the trio that’d performed on that second album, further reinforcing the very correct but kinda avant-prog thrashing bent of that era, too. Whatever the reality is in terms of development the album itself smokes n’ spazzes out in an authentic early 90’s peak European death metal way. The magic is there with this one in terms of revisiting the true grime of death metal while taking it in a “progressive” direction which vouches for the weird and obscure rather than the cinematic.

Peiting, Germany-based death metal band CEMETERY have technically been around since 1986 but are best known for releasing two demos, circa 1991 and 1993 respectively, which’ve been compiled but were never all that notable in the grand scheme of ancient quasi-progressive death metal. I believe they changed their name and made some sort of prog-thrash beyond 1994 but would eventually disband beyond that and… wouldn’t reform until 2017 when they were lead by guitarist/vocalist Daniel Zizek. They’ve now released two full-length albums in a progressive, semi-melodic style with some inspiration taken from black metal riffcraft. With ‘Thoughts on Life… and Death‘ their focus carries this bizarre multi-generational affectation where the bones of certain movements appear to call back to the early-to-mid 90’s in their blunt progressions and harder cut rhythms yet there is a (newer) Sadus-esque reliance on groove which defines their arrangements in a more “modern” sensibility.

“Grief, Anger and Despair” is a good example of a set of riffs that don’t necessarily work together but are funneled through snappy, almost speed metallic runs amidst a melodic death sheen applied where the effect reads more as exercise than statement, nodding toward their interest in prog and black metal of old. The elemental fusion of these songs makes sense though I don’t know if it makes for songs which ping the morbid wonder of ‘old school’ death metal, which I’d naturally expected after revisiting their demo compilation. A strange mash of ideas overall, but one which arrives upon some sense as tracks like “Lock the Doors to Your Mind” begin to elucidate the bigger picture of their spread.

Italian infernal death metal band CONTINUUM OF XUL have generally restaffed their rhythm section beyond their debut EP back in 2022, now operating as a trio with Defacement and Morcolac drummer M.Bestia for this release. Lead by former Antropofagus vocalist Tya and Ad Nauseam guitarist Matteo G. who’d worked together in the band Hellish God one can head into their work expecting twisted, riff-obsessed blasphemic death metal delivered via esoteric occult theme. To me their work brilliantly resembles an extension of the work bands like Centurian/Nox where the best of Floridian USDM was given a brutal shot in the arm adjacent to the work of Angelcorpse, Hate Eternal and such. You’ll hear this most clearly split between “Hellspawn in Aeternum” and “No Praise for Your Saviour” accordingly. In fact I am such a fan of this style I was kind of surprised to have discovered it while browsing social media months ago rather than my inbox but either way I’d found this album underrated and void of the buzz it’d deserved.

There were maybe three or four demos that hit my inbox this year that’d had me dropping jaw like a damned blow-up doll in awe and this three song tape from Stockholm, Sweden-based quartet DEATH PULSATION was absolutely one of them. The inspiration here is late 80’s death metal of the Necrovore-tainted variety and given to volatility on the level of Vorum and Beyond (Germany) where a chaotic, bestial fire is lit beneath each piece. Ruthlessly socked out but not without nuance (re: “Eater of Stars”) the energy here comes from folks involved in black and death metal groups Malakhim and Encryptment respectively and I see just as much potential for their approach to purely menacing poisonous death metal attack. Nothing but hype for whatever they do next.

At the time of writing this Kolding, Denmark-based quartet FOETOREM have already recorded their 2026 slated debut full-length album, and I’d venture a guess it’ll hit mid-year or nearby via Everlasting Spew, but there is yet time to appreciate this short ~16 minute three song demo revealing their guttural, chugging-hard take on mid-paced death/doom metal. This band comes from folks best known for Necrotic Ritual and pagan black metal project Geistaz’ika yet its sound reflects an interest in many congealed forms where the clubbed-out chugging through opener “Peeled Face Mask” eventually finds its own melodious insert to keep things buoyant, avoiding a purely dreary belching fit. In fact the bellowed vocals are one of the band’s strengths, a sort of Demilichian weirdness that follows through otherwise plainly jogging motions juxtaposed with slow jutted tension. I’m not sure they’ve much experience with actual doom metal riffcraft but the slower paced stuff has its own simplistic appeal and usually comes in service to a Scandinavian death metal groove. Curious to see if they’ve elevated these ideas with their LP but either way a beastly first glance.

In the works since 2022 and dealing in cold, brutal atmospheric assault this third full-length album (‘Actuality‘) from Cleveland, Ohio-based death metal trio INOCULATION generally iterates and expands upon the identity they’d sort of clarified via their second LP back in 2021. The big deal here for my own taste is a combination of heightened brutality and some more impressive technical arrangements, a few thrilling runs and ‘old school’ inspired rhythmic whorl which is yet more focused on the last decade or so of death metal mutation overall. The bass guitar performances here (re: “Orbital Decay” etc.) amp up alongside this shift finding a more capable, louder and aggressive form than before. While these changes may appear superficial at a glance I would say that, for what its worth in this realm, this is a more professional recording and set of performances than anything else they’ve created to date. All of this competence hasn’t sapped the strange ‘cosmic’ death metal energy from the group but in this case there is no real drift, no space-cased expanse to explore here beyond trudging brutality and an experience nearly void of lead guitars. At their hardest there is a sort of 2000’s Malevolent Creation level groove that breaks through these songs but overall I don’t know that more than one or two riffs have any hope of sticking in mind or standing out per my own taste.

Self-described as medieval death-thrashers Belluno, Italy-based duo PENTAKOLO lean into the speed metallic verve of 80’s death metal as much as they do the simplistic bounding of modern death metal variants today per this energetic debut LP. ‘Exiled to Infinite Gloom‘ doesn’t initially read as anything all that special, the first few riffs that hit are sluggish and sparse, but this eventually reveals as a sort of punkish, Celtic Frost-esque drang on the march through these largely mid-paced ~3 minute death metal songs. While I don’t think the compositions here are built to align with the vocals in a clever way the grooves which they’ve focused on do offer an entertaining enough ride and plenty of breaks in pacing as the album rolls on, the only thing most glaringly missing here is lead guitars or any coloration beyond a few atmospheric layers applied (see: “Apocalyptic Visions”.) Not a bad record but not a memorable one either, though they’re certainly onto something with their sound/style and general curation.

Portland, Oregon-based gore-rooted trio RIPPING REMAINS make their debut statement with this fairly substantive ~17 minute EP, four songs focused on hairy, morgue-readied and guttural death metal sounds equally borrowed from USDM and European morbidity. Featuring folks from DeathCave and Hallucinator while acting as a spiritual successor to their previous band Dripping Decay these folks bring some of that early goregrind/death metal mutiny to these songs, chunking through fairly simple compositions built to catch the ear via spastic vocal gusts and swells of grinding transitional movement. The effect is simple and entertaining enough despite its crispy-ass digital guitar distortion and at times hilarious lyrics (re: “Rub My Infection on You”). I wasn’t a wild fan of their previous band but this does feel like a worthy hit of the reset button thus far. For my own taste the Murder Squad level grime of closer “Maternal Rot” is the best of the lot.

Although this self-titled debut full-length from Santiago, Chile-based death metal trio UNCHURCH is typically the sort of record I jump on for full review I’d not heard of, or, heard it until the day after it released and as such it’d gotten slapped into a pretty extensive backlog. If you’d missed ‘Unchurch‘ early that month and enjoy Chilean death metal’s history of cavernous, thrashing obscurity there is a lot to like here on this Immolation-esque, often surprisingly exploratory first LP. The second song on the album, “Traitor”, is one of the more challenging feats up front as it features strangely lugubrious riff runs and ‘Tribulated Bells‘-level trampling blasts to enforce their scathe. The album only gnarls and warps its rattling sense of punishing groove from that point, rallying between chasmic punctuative movements and more freely wrung disarray. While the overall effect is chaotic in the moment I’d found revisiting this album only intensified its unique take on ancient, feral yet technical ideation. Raw production values, unreal cover art, and a pretty wild (but at times buried) bass guitar presence made this one beyond worthy for my own taste.

Rooted in ‘old school’ brutal death metal Helsingborg, Sweden-based quartet UNDECAYED comes from folks previously involved in bands like The Darksend, Deranged as well as various other obscure late 90’s death metal projects. Formed in 2008 the last anyone’d heard from these folks was a 2011 demo CD-r where their sound was maybe something closer to early Insision, a merger of classic inspiration and some technical/brutal death metal edge in their technique… and that is largely what we find here on ‘In Death’s Image‘. Production values are pretty standard, letting the drums sock a bit louder, pulling in some secondary vocals and generally rallying through each song with a few mid-paced moments allowing for some nuance. We start to hear more of this nuance around “The Descendants of Death” where each set of riffs introduced bear their own punctuation (a harmonic, etc.) and a somewhat melodic solo introduces some Eldritch atmosphere in the wake of their pummeling. Not every riff sticks, the vocals are a shade too stark in the mix, and the toxic green they’ve used for the cover’s graphic design is revolting but the overall effect is pure underground death metal with an admirably brutal, slow-moshable edge.

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