Summoning ancient death into their tomb of morbid stench and feasting upon the screams of wailing souls ’til rabid possession sets in Stockholm, Sweden-based death metal quintet MUTATION wield the uncanny maniac accost of the auld underground on this cruelly concieved debut full-length album. Achieving their blackened mass with unbound, unusually rabid action in hand the band’s grasp of mid-to-late 80’s thrashing death metal on ‘Esoteric Order of Debauchery‘ stuns more with each adrenaline-shot pass. Though they’ve sophisticated beyond their demo tape from a few years back here unto a proper full-length experience their work here offers believable answer to the many might’ve been acts that never made it out of the late 80’s underground with this style.

Mutation formed as a duo back in 2019 as a result of ancient death metal’s possession over drummer S.N (Antichrist, ex-Mystik) and guitarist K.L (ex-Beastiality) as they’d concoct a sound inspired by the mid-to-late 80’s development of underground death metal. They’d amassed a quintet by 2022 and an incredible demo tape (‘Demo ’23‘, 2023) followed, sporting a thrash ’til death approach a la ‘Morbid Visions‘, Necrovore or Slaughter Lord wherein echoing vocals and trampling tension blurred the lines between black, death and thrash at their most feral points of convergence. Their approach was unique in the sense that it didn’t quite land in the punkish Hellhammer trough nor the legions inspired by witching metal and Bathory‘s second LP (re: Merciless) instead bearing a cross between Brazilian and Floridian temperament. The attack and the riffs supplied by those three songs squared up into sublime cacophony and it wasn’t long before they’d signed on with Hell’s Headbangers for this debut LP.

‘Esoteric Order of Debauchery‘ doesn’t deign recreate the sensation of a late 80’s demo tape in the sense that it isn’t a short vertical slice of capability but instead builds a fast-and-dirty album experience which reflects the methods of ‘Altars of Madness‘-era speed metal kinematics while taking it to a bestial level a la ‘Death’s Striking Wings‘-era Degial. The flurry of knives and snarled-through grooves of opener “Occultation of the Ephemeral Light” definitely speaks to a “Chapel of Ghouls” level of action in this way, taking the percussive detours and quick changes of that realm but grinding through as noisome as is possible. “Pestilent Whore” after it, reaching for no less chaotic dual rhythmic churning as its core spectacle but winging a couple more off-the-cuff feeling leads with fewer pauses in step. Those first two pieces, along with the wailing storm that introduces the album, offer crucial first impression for the listener who’d potentially gone in expecting a primitive ‘Divus de Mortuus‘ clone.

The death-thrashing, trill whipping push of Side A closer “Metamorphosis (Beyond the Flesh)” is far more compelling in terms of the riffcraft it cuts and the general trip taken throughout between the slapping Abhorration (or, ‘Terrible Certainty‘) worthy clip through its main verses and the sinister atmosphere generated within the mid-song turn and its steady reprisal. There were hints of the skill level available to these folks on the first couple of songs here but Mutation‘s riffcraft starts to doubly smoke within the cap placed upon the first half. The course through the first half of ‘Esoteric Order of Debauchery‘ was more-or-less convincing enough as a delivery upon the band’s primally fraught demo and had my ass kicked before the first couple songs ended.

From that point the listener has gotten the gist of Mutation‘s ouevre, or, the crux of the maniac 80’s death metal inspired freneticism of their craft. That isn’t to say that the inward-spiraling riffcraft, whammy slapping leads, and ever cycling slate of rhythmic changes fail to accumulate new interest on Side B but moreso that the full listen is consistent in what voice and temperament is established early on. “Necromantical Holocaust” stands out in mind for its sorcery of the riff no doubt, and that havoc might be at its most brutal nearby the album’s endpoint when including the closer/title track, but I’d also point to vocalist N.S (Atonement, Lepra) as an equally important part of the total accost here, a feral force that strongly characterizes the whole deal; The sum of these parts and the way it intensifies toward the end of the record speaks to an insane, filth-ridden death metal ideal few have capably achieved in the last half-decade or so.

The major thrill to pull from Mutation‘s debut LP might initially center around the raw era-sourced style they’re sporting but after dozens of listens the riffs are what solidify it as a far above-average ‘old school’ death metal article. The quintet not only speak the diabolic language of thrashing 80’s black/death metal in glorious tongues but generally, or, eventually pull beyond pure reference over the course of ‘Esoteric Order of Debauchery‘ and that sits far beyond any expectations set by the conflagration their demo’d proposed. It is easily one of my personal favorite records of the year. A very high recommendation.

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