The root of mankind’s suffering persists as long as the desire for permanence supersedes self-actualization, the drum of death’s cult is yet relentlessly beaten whether or not sentience grants awareness to those straggling behind as Reutlingen, Germany-based death metal trio CASKET return for a fifth full-length album codified by morbidity and the absurdity of existence. Several decades deep into their craft these folks’ve presented another pillar in a long-built colonnade of tradition via ‘In The Long Run We Are All Dead‘ where their form of groove-laden 90’s death metal carries on an unbroken streak of blunt, brutal and decidedly ‘old school’ feature. Here the argument for their work is one of increasing returns rather than diminishing, that each record released only improves upon the last in terms of presentation and detail in general while their work remains steadfast in style.

Inspired by thrash metal, grindcore and death metal in the second half of the 80’s Casket would form as a quartet in 1990, maintaining that same line-up for their first seventeen years of activity. Where they’d started was vaguely comparable to a band like Deathcore (Deu) or the more death metal side of Blood per an initial demo tape (‘Ne Vollkanne‘, 1992) with a live rehearsal sound and punkish swing lent to their form of thrashing death metal. That style changed drastically with iteration across a series of demo tapes marked by a huge guitar sound and increasingly sophisticated songwriting, sounding like the peak of ’92 by the time their notable tape ‘Meant to Be Dead‘ released in 1996. Unearthed more completely with each minor release the style that the band would foster approximately resembled Floridian, British and Scandinavian death metal movements per a style considered ‘old school’ even in 1998 for their debut full-length album ‘Under the Surface‘, an underrated release from an era of brutality and groove dominated sounds. The band would release one more EP under that original line-up in the early 2000’s but wouldn’t re-emerge until later on in the decade, then a trio.

Though I wouldn’t recommend Casket‘s second and third albums as standouts, they are both fairly typical choppy death metal with the occasional rocking groove applied, their fourth LP (‘Unearthed‘, 2017) seems to best represent the original line-up’s straightforward action and sensibilities while reflecting their 90’s sound more directly. Some of this distinction lies in that album’s production values, a number of grinding/less predictive transitions, and an amped riff count but the gist is that they’d only gotten better with iteration after returning as a trio. This era of the band might appeal to fans of Grave or ‘Erase‘-era Gorefest, blunt and simple in their gait but still carrying some love for thrashing old school death metal; Taking a walk through the band’s discography directly informs the listener on their philosophy/modus where basically zero pretense, theme, or purpose is applied to their craft beyond simply making morbid ‘old school’ death metal and doing it live. Reading numerous interviews reinforces a modest, uncomplicated point of view which they all seem to have a good time with.

Album number five comes nearly a decade beyond the band’s last statement and generally carries on with the style and sound design featured on their 2021 EP, ‘Urn‘. This includes production values which are appropriately cavernous and place great emphasis on Casket‘s thunderous guitar tone, coldly roared vocals and plenty of thrashing yet mid-paced grooves to follow. Opener “The Will to Comply” sounds enormous and drags one hell of a line with its steadied riffcraft while keeping it simple as possible, a pretty classic example of their sound which to me lands somewhere between the rigid throttle of ‘Death Shall Rise‘-era Cancer and the brutality of late 90’s/early 2000’s Vomitory. This’ll make even more sense when ear-to-ear with “Highest Thrones” and “Hammer, Knife, Spade”, songs which break up the mid-paced judder of their movement with faster hits of brutality.

The best songs, well, most all of the songs on ‘In the Long Run We Are All Dead‘ switch things up in this way leaving your taste in riffcraft as the decider as to what’ll ultimately stick. For my own taste the sweet spot for this album lands primarily on Side A with the duo of “Seeds of Desolation” and the aforementioned “Hammer, Knife, Spade” representing the best of Casket past and present. Over on Side B “Strangulation Culture” makes good use of the band’s signature groove-handed movement while incorporating some of the better whammy-diving leads on the full listen and pairs brilliantly with closer “Graveyard Stomper”, probably the most memorable song on here beyond the “Children of the Grave”-type chopping found on “Seeds of Desolation”.

I could probably dig deeper into their work than that but this album (and Casket‘s discography in general) is for the type of death metal fan who wouldn’t overthink a record in this style beyond appreciating authenticity, consistency and hard-handed rhythms. In this sense these folks’ve delivered a bigger, better album than the three that’d preceded it (re: riffs, production values, et al.) without fundamentally changing who they are: an ‘old school’ inspired death metal band. It is an above-average result from folks who’ve been unflinching in vision for ~three and half decades. It won’t likely floor longtime fans of the sub-genre though it will threaten to stick in mind if given due ear. A moderately high recommendation.

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