Though its title suggests straying movement away from normative designation this third full-length album from Stockholm, Sweden-based death metal quartet XORSIST persistently upholds the grand tropes and traditions of regional craft, specifically the arc provided by the first half of the 90’s. That isn’t to say that their work on ‘Aberrations‘ is rote or under-served but instead that their evolution has thus far focused on honing a higher-than-thou standard for semi-melodic ‘old school’ death metal of a certain design. The result is once again all-pro from these folks, arguably too polished up and sleek beyond their years, virtually guaranteeing that their efforts are not only approachable to all but way more likely to leave a dent upon the Swedeath-seeking Nazgûl among us.

Xorsist formed as a teenaged trio circa plague year MMXX with pretty clear intent to play some form of death metal by the time their first demo/single (‘Xorsist‘, 2021) was released digitally. Seemingly inspired by death/thrash and bearing a Sodom-esque brunt to their trample those first two songs under the band’s name generally spoke to the ethos of late 80’s/early 90’s thrashing death metal style with riffs that resembled Insanity‘s classic “Fire, Death, Fate” in their main progression alongside an Autopsy-esque kick applied (re: “Gold Beneath the Sand”). Roughly hewn as those ideas were they’d quickly followed up with a self-released debut LP (‘Deadly Possession‘, 2022) which is unfortunately not available to purchase or stream beyond shit I’d never touch like Spotify. It is a shame because that first record from these folks was solid Sunlight Studios-tracked work carrying plenty of the psychotic and kinda rocking edge of early Swedish death metal which I’d compared to the spirit of the first Unleashed record at the time. Consider that the Mark I stage of the band’s early evolution as beyond that point only vocalist/guitarist (and I assume main songwriter) Gustav Ryderfelt remained from the original trio.

While the intent of the band was yet spiritually similar the Prosthetic released second full-length album (‘At the Somber Steps of Serenity‘, 2023) from Xorsist featured a different trio of folks and a far more typical Sunlight Studios sauced sound with a big honking HM-2 inspired guitar tone as its central-set yield. At the time it was clear that some of the classic Dismember tropes had crept deeper into their voice via some melodic nods and such but in general their wield if mid-paced grooves and strong bass guitar performances made for plausible evolution even if the thrashing madness of their gig was gone. The song “Imitation” contains the impact of that second LP in a nutshell: Scatterbrained at times, mid-paced parts are solid, great flow to their trad riffcraft but a typical sound overall.

For a band who’d arguably made it official with a full-length too early on, worked with pro-level capture from the start, and kinda ran with the whole classic Swedish death metal sound by default ‘Aberrations‘ is an impressive accomplishment but also an expected result. The moment opener “Rest Impending” breaks out Xorsist follow ye olde “safe” Dismember / Unleashed playbook note for note (see also: “Faceless“) and they do a great job in the process. Broadly speaking their work on this album shows the maturing hand of the artist via an expanded melodic ideal, polishing away any/all frayed edges of their attack for the sake of sleek and mostly traditional fare at face value. Though the riff count is yet higher than most ‘retro’ idealism affords and the dynamic sprawl available to songs like “Souls to Morn” inspire on the tromp through no doubt the first impression here is stoically the current accepted professional standard for Swedish death metal.

The maturing melodic hand of Xorsist suggested earlier shines loudest up front via standout/key single “An Elegy Unfolds” arguably their most studied and inspired melodic death piece to date and one which finds their guitarist’s swaggering through its most dramatic movements with great confidence. The groove that hits around the ~2:27 minute mark is just one example of the level of inventive, ever-shifting thread they’ve deployed throughout the full listen as well as one quick example of their rhythm section’s musicianship having been given upgrade beyond 2023. Not every piece on ‘Aberrations‘ touches upon this style but another single, “His Grounded Gaze“, takes that idea into more of a late 90’s Fleshcrawl sort of headspace, also one of the better features of the bassist Birk Castenmalm‘s efforts on the album.

Despite a pristine ~39 minute runtime and ten songs in hand ‘Aberrations‘ flows so steadily that it feels like it does everything it can to delay crossing the finish line, spacing its longer and more detailed pieces with acoustic guitar driven interlude and a shorter burner or two along the way. This mounts a lot of pressure upon the final two songs to continue to develop Xorsist‘s undertaking while closing out and they do so with reasonable class. I’m not a the biggest fan of the mostly instrumental “Disbelief” and the samples interspersed closer but “Memorial Cries” reprises the doom and gloom the band introduced on the previous album unto a fitting final act. The full listen is smartly arranged into a weaving and dodging experience, a rare dynamic achieved beyond ADHD spasticity or the usual solid block of cranked HM-2 blitzing one’d expect… and this alone is enough for the band’s efforts to stand out in the popular death metal realm they’ve aimed for.

Though a heard-it-all attitude is warranted from any longtime sub-genre fan heading into ‘Aberrations‘ portal of death the finer details tucked into its familiar modus did eventually win me over. Finer production values don’t matter to me as much as personalized interpretation anymore but it was hard to deny the boon of lucidity and precision afforded Xorsist‘s efforts via the sound design/capture of this album. The rhythm section in particular gets an idealized suite wherein the bass guitar is (again) well placed in the mix and the drums are given command nearly equal to that of the army of rhythm guitar tracks driving it. Otherwise the general curation/layout features some of the quartet’s best choices to date per a Seagrave-esque black-and-grey cover artwork and superior new logo. The whole of the experience directly benefits from high standards set across the board and this should easily impress the average Swedeath attuned death metal fandom without fail. A high recommendation.

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