Arisen freshly indoctrinated by a head full of gore and roaming with a taste for bloodied classicist riffcraft Constanța, Romania-based death metal quartet SCYTHE emerge from the salt-cured wastes with tales of perverted rotting decay within their debut full-length album. Rooted in ‘old school’ thrashing death metal familiarity but quickly branching out within their not-so referential repertoire ‘Boiled Alive‘ appears as a sort of transitional record for the troupe, one which splits itself between revamped eldest compositions and slightly more advanced action beyond. Though there are many bands out today playing the part within those strictures these folks’ve tapped into the distemper of early 90’s death metal dynamism with some believable enthusiasm and an already sharp eye/ear for the real thing.

Scythe formed circa 2023 as a quartet focused on gore-obsessed, horrified late 80’s/early 90’s death metal style. In pursuit of ‘old school’ standards they’d appeared reasonably well-practiced and thrashing mad on their debut demo (‘Boiled Alive‘, 2024), a rehearsal grade recording which’d highlighted a few early Death inspired dual guitar writ compositions with lyrics celebrating murder, human decay and necrophilia otherwise. Despite being held together by duct tape and featuring sort of wobbly, rockish lead guitar wandering it was a decent enough tape aiming for morbid atmosphere. The greenness of that first demo doesn’t translate into the impressive debut album they’ve managed since.

A digital only release from February of this year recently picked up on CD by way of Awakening Records, ‘Boiled Alive‘ is both a leap beyond what we’d heard on Scythe‘s demo and a brilliant realization of those same earliest ideas as the band pull the superior pieces from their demo making a few crucial addendum to them alongside newer original songs. Album closer/title track “Boiled Alive” notably receives a small upgrade to its arrangement with a new part and “666 Degrees” has been renamed “Tenebrous Decease”, otherwise the demo songs are recaptured and refined unto what is effectively Side B on the album.

The general sound and style Scythe‘ve achieved within the eight song ~35 minute stretch of this debut aesthetically resembles a cross between the less grinding parts of ‘Penetralia‘ and the thrashing, finer detail of ‘Cross the Styx‘ sans the (early) Deicide-induced rush of either. There is a swinging thrash inflected jig to opener “Liquified Entrails” which should pull your mind closer to something like Necrophagia‘s debut (alternately Massacre) in terms of movement, this becomes more of a feature over the course of the full listen (see also: “Necrophilic Corpse Orgies”). The riff which we hear punched out around ~2:14 minutes in is maybe more along the lines of Insanity or Ripping Corpse but you’ve gotten the idea well enough, they are pushing into a circa 1992 type sound between heavier bursts of aggression and looser-slung thrashing death.

The overall curation of ‘Boiled Alive‘ speaks to Scythe‘s intent to arrive with a professional sound which is in tune with their early 90’s death metal temperament, a standard overseen by vocalist/guitarist and main songwriter Mihai Panait and shipped out to folks who’ve worked with The Chasm and Molder in the past for the final render. While this level of polished ‘old school’ edge goes a long way toward a strong first impression and lasting spin I’d been more impressed by the quartet’s jump in performance quality here compared to the slummed-through scratch of their rehearsal feeling demo tape. Beyond that advance in skill per the years between, and some better attention paid to time-keeping, the quartet’s work shows within these songs as they refine the old and usher in the new so that all falls under the same umbrella at a uniform standard.

The ‘Leprosy‘-tinged “Plastered in Phlegm” in provides a good spot to point out some of the tightened lead guitar playing found in Scythe‘s work beyond their demo alongside their incorporation of more varied pacing, riff change-ups and general capability to fill a five minute death metal song with action. The shorter “Pervertor’s Crypt/Gore Galore” cinches up the range of their work into two quicker cut movements to some degree but the first half of the album is best represented by “Necrophilic Corpse Orgies” for its step between many modes; Otherwise we get a more polished vision of what we’d heard on the band’s demo over on the second half of ‘Boiled Alive‘. With the exception of the slightly revamped title track and parts of “Tenebrous Decease” Side B appears more primitive, less adorned with interesting leads and riff-changes as it rolls past. This leaves the album feeling transitional, caught mid-breakthrough and front loaded in some sense.

Though I’m not sure they’ve fully arrived upon the prime standards set by newer generational acts like Coffin Rot the bulk of this debut convinces that Scythe are not only onto something authentic here with ‘Boiled Alive‘ but that their craft has already improved substantially over a short period of time. The greater effect of their work is never so overly refined or referential that it appears generic or escapes its own goal as the body parts they’ve sewn together to build this corpse yet bears the right ‘old school’ odor. The total effect of the quartet’s work hits close enough to the real thing and bears enough interesting craggy interruptions to ensure a memorable impression. A moderately high recommendation.

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