Pursuing a logical ramp beyond their introduction a few years back Houston, Texas-based death metal quintet HASEROT return with a less knotted and more melodic debut full-length album. With some serious focus applied to their merger of popular Scandinavian and North American death metal style ‘Advent of Suffering‘ makes good on the promise of their earlier work while shredding quite a bit more in the process. Though it didn’t fully lodge itself in mind over the course there are yet a strong handful of pieces here which showcase the admirable trajectory of the band thus far.

Haserot cast odd first impression per their name, a family name invoked on a grave plot from a large (still extant) Midwest canned food/grocery supplier, perhaps intending to invoke the infamous weeping angel of death sculpture above it. To be fair I suppose it does have “rot” in it but this choice ends up coming across cursory nonetheless, and I don’t get the sense that the band’s interest in theme runs any deeper than their choice of name implies. Formed in 2020 for their love of popular Swedish and United States death metal of the 90’s the band’s stated intent lines up with that inspiration as a fusion of aggression and melodicism limited to ~3-4 minute death metal songs. With the exception of drummer Cryptos Grimm (Spectral Manifest, ex-Godless Rising) most of the folks involved arrived upon this group with resumes primed by their local heavy/doom metal scenery and seemingly a good understanding of the fest-level standards for modern death metal acts today.

As evidenced by the clear stylistic direction, curation and render of their debut EP (‘Throne of Malice‘, 2022) Haserot are squarely aiming for a professional standard amidst easily read material. Their appreciation for the “new old school” all-in, thousand layered, dual vocal nox of Swedish death metal in its post-Bloodbath (and The Black Dahlia Murder, even) mindset was immediately evident as the maximal, cranked to ten ideology of the early 2000’s came through. The band’s choice of sound design then-and-now reflects many of those traits, side stepping the nuance of earlier Swedish death metal for the sake of its stadium filling era while incorporating style which occasionally includes later Carcass‘ odd-set movements and more commonly taps into Morbid Angel‘s heavier grooves. The total effect on that first EP recalled a standard somewhere in between the wrath of Aeon and the semi-melodic edge of In Aeternum per my own reference. That same general observation (mostly) persists within ‘Advent of Suffering‘.

Enjoying yet another roaring Dan Swanö-polished render Haserot‘ve successfully invoked an effective facsimile of late 90’s Swedeath brume here while tilling some light melodic death soil within ‘Advent of Suffering’. Digging a bit deeper into their dual lead guitar game means the first impression is strong here despite the thickly layered, kinda moshing and shredding introduction their maximal approach dictates. The chunking muss of the album’s first two songs slugs along without much impact for my taste, lacking in compelling riffcraft while establishing their default action in the process. By the time we’ve reached the momentum of “Apophis” the album begins to build cache, specifically per the Dawn-esque riff that briefly follows the solo around the ~2 minute mark, a movement that’d caught my ear as one of a few proper mid-90’s melodic death/black gestures on the album (incl. “Tears in Bethlehem” right after.)

The voice established on Side A then naturally carries over into the second half with no less bombast as they reach for steadier, mid-paced operations. The crawling and snarling movement on “Khlyst” sort of feeds into the energy flowing through standout “Madness and the Void”, together forming the cumulative peak of interest on the full listen from my point of view. The rocking bent to the guitar solos on these songs, and most all others on the album, definitely speaks to a foundational interest in bigger name ca. ’93 death metal ideals but these are cut so frequently throughout that they begin to resemble one another, often acting as a stand-in for more interesting riff n’ rhythm driven ideas. Having Andy LaRocque and James Murphy both contribute guest leads on the closer (“Curse of Haserot”) at the end of the album should cue your ear precisely into the standard Haserot‘re taking on elsewhere.

One of my favorite aspects of ‘Advent of Suffering‘ is somewhat buried as the presence of the bass guitar performances (via current Helstar bassist Garrick Smith) appears vestigial within the guitar-forward mix applied. This pings in mind as a symptom of picking a familiar set of sonic guidelines to center themselves within rather than letting their interests spread more messily. That level of conceptual containment nonetheless helps this debut LP achieve the expectations set by ‘Throne of Malice‘ as the quintet continue to carefully expand their vision; For my own taste the sound and shred of it all is entertaining enough but there is yet a great chasm between a handful of songs which drill into mind and others which buzz past the ear sans impact. Though I’d found the full listen of ‘Advent of Suffering‘ inconsistent in its rhythmic interest I think Haserot are already well within range of enacting their own ideal ratio of Scandinavian death melodicism and spikier USDM traits within this debut. A moderately high recommendation.

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