Corroded, burnt and excoriated from within ’til leathered by the passage of time and stabilized through extended rehabilitation Molins de Rei, Catalonia-based death metal quintet CAUSTIC return for a fourth full-length album which resuscitates their ‘old school’ borne hand of brutality. Updated by pro-level recording and new alliances ‘Inner Deflagration‘ offers the best sounding, best ’rounded record from the band to date while upholding the core values of the sub-genre sans trendy, irrelevant nonsense. This steadfast approach won’t read as absolute skull-popping fireworks upfront but does admirably represent several decades and generations of death metal fandom well within its ~35 minute haul.

Caustic formed back in 1992 taking their name from the lyrics of Carcass‘ “Ruptured in Purulence” with the directive of playing brutal, uncompromising death metal. You’ll find their earliest material, a sole demo tape (‘The Sensations of the End‘, 1995) echoed both thrashing Floridian death metal advent and the popular intensity of Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse (among others) in the early 90’s and generally serves a fine enough example of underground brutal death in a transitional state. The major outcome of their initial efforts was ‘Rebirth of Procession‘ (1999) where their sound had adapted to the changing landscape of brutality with a different one-time guitarist in tow. In fact each of the band’s releases feature at least partial restaffing of their riff generators; In cutting through their discography there should be some sense that the band’s work has been heavily dictated by adaptation to circumstance with the only remaining original member at this point being bassist Xavi Brosa.

Fans of pre-’05 Deeds of Flesh should appreciate some of the riffs on (‘The Horror Cult‘, 2005) as Caustic amped their pace, once again reconfigured and prepared for a long, long sleep beyond a more technical promo CD-r (‘Promo 2007‘, 2007) a few years later. I suppose the point to be made here is that this is a band without any particular allegiance to/taste for trends who’ve generally sought to update their gig without losing the locus of their attack. Ten years beyond their second album and ten years ago their Sevared-released third LP (‘Hate Generation‘, 2015) was a fine enough translation of their ethos but they weren’t happy with the production values and the whole process due to being affected by a long financial crisis in their country (~’08-’14), once again prompting an extended break and shifting line-up in the interim. — The first thing any fan will notice about ‘Inner Deflagration‘ is that they’ve take the time to curate the album more seriously, gone for pro-level production values, and generally aimed to update their capabilities once more.

Outlining some manner of identity for Caustic in their latest configuration should be easy enough: A reasonably varietal translation of ‘old school’ brutality inspired death metal. In the course of perusing their discography and spending a few weeks with ‘Inner Deflagration‘ there isn’t much else to report beyond a high riff count, avoidance of hardcore/hip-hop and tech inspired brutal death trends, and some general “modernization” applied to the guitar/drum techniques deployed beyond ‘Hate Generation‘ and ‘Horror Cult‘. Rather than suggest total authenticity of form or any sort of retro sound deployed what we get here is a solid, fairly straightforward death metal album with a few great riffs to catch onto along the way and better-rounded production values than before. It should primarily appeal to fans of the real thing for these reasons.

A few of the songs found on ‘Inner Deflagration‘ were written soon after ‘Hate Generation‘ and bear some semblance of Caustic‘s path at the time whereas the majority were composed once the band had found their ~current line-up ca. 2023 or so. Though I can’t speculate which songs were written in the past a number of them (“Stab It Until You Make It”, “Maggots”) are less detailed, generally have fewer riffs and are meant to simply hammer through. Other pieces have a slightly more “modern” edge in how they flare out (“Inner Deflagration”) or slow down (“Mestres De L’assassinat”). This doesn’t read as inconsistency in practice but rather (relative) variety as I’d suggested prior as the band cross the threshold between ‘old school’ sounds and post-millennial carnage otherwise.

Counted among the major highlights here opener “Dead Mind Job” smacks right into it in a way which recalls mid-to-late 90’s Malevolent Creation or similar to my ear as Caustic run through a number of percussive riffs in erratic thread, each punctuated by chunking hits and/or a number of tempo changes. To my ear this achieves a certain classics-era quality in many respects and does well to set the standard upon introduction. This quickly blends in with the bulk of the full listen but the ‘old school’ edge of “A Vortex Darkly” and the chuggier haul of “Speak of the Dead” are worthy of mention on the pass through. Where I get a bit lost in the spread here is what stands out enough to pull me back in beyond a general love of the sub-genre. Any attempt to pry into their realm and extract anything deeper than a solid death metal experience amounted to nil on my part.

Though I enjoy the band’s demo and first album quite a bit for the stamps in time that they represent it would be fair to say that ‘Inner Deflagration‘ is the superior album from Caustic, or, their most well-rounded and professional release to date which yet achieves their core goal beyond 1992. Kinda wild album art and a higher standard of production help to secure serious impact here while the focus of their songcraft covers many bases, cracks off many a riff… but without dealing clear enough signature. A moderately high recommendation.

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