Greased with a handful of adipocere scraped from their own coffin lid and fed by the blood of those who’d dug up their bones Costa Mesa, California-based death metal solo project CADAVEROUS ODOUR comes alive readied to desecrate per the horrified nausea of this debut full-length album. A feast rich with the coffin-bound treasures of rotting flesh ‘Sickening Hallucinations of Altered Existence‘ explores the gristly depravity of ancient death’s myriad admixture with grind, doom and gore throughout its eight ‘old school’ underground informed compositions. Despite, or perhaps because of, the homebrewed nature of their craft there is a bizarrely authentic mania, a violent level of estrangement available to this debut which speaks directly to the wilder, unbound days of peak non-corporatized death metal exploration.

Formed as a solo project via musician Sasha Gallant (Depraver, Dimensionless) back in 2023 Cadaverous Odour was/is squarely informed by underground ‘old school’ death, death/doom and deathgrind. In the past I’d described their sound as “dark and obscure USDM traits crossed with the gurgling madness of the post-‘Symphonies of Sickness‘ outliers of the early 90’s” citing the fleshiness of earliest Xysma and the cacophonic surrealism of Disembowelment (among others) as indicators of their shambling n’ stabbing ambitions. When Gallant put his first demo (‘Corpus Inhumation‘, 2024) together you could practically taste the old Mortician-level stink on it, material already confidently delving into doomed and grinding death with a believable rawness at its back. Primitive and difficult to predict, their sense for the riff made for a great first impression.

A lot of solo bedroom-level ‘old school’ death metal acts suck ass (be it the early 90’s or today) because they’re often learning how to riff, have no clue when it comes to drum rudiments, and often plagiarize obscure groups within their skill set. In Cadaverous Odour‘s case deep underground fandom and taste eventually spoke louder than the learning process, if we can excuse the quicker farted-out ideas from their second tape (‘Cadaver Mutilation‘, 2024). Demo number three (‘Corporeal Separation‘, 2025) was the first major indication of the step-up we find on ‘Sickening Hallucinations of Altered Existence‘ where they’d achieved a higher standard for composition and tasked the total concoction with atmospheric bloat.

Blasting against simpler chopped-out riffs and immediately whipping a fucked up whammy-strangling lead off the rip opener “Body Dispossession” is a crowd scorcher, a dramatic arrival for their wall of guitar wriggling and guttural bluntness. The structure of that opening piece is generally amorphous in its directive, written specifically to be the motion-sickness inducing catalyst for the album up front and I think best justifies mentions of bands like Necrophiliac (Spain) in terms of unhinged movement and expression. Per the album experience the opener successfully conjures the right momentum but the curious passerby seeking the Cadaverous Odour experience should wait to make any judgement ’til the characterizing stretch of “Funereal Abstraction” grinds in. Between those first three pieces (sans intro) which kick off this album you’ll get a clear sense for the hammer-smashed grind and gloom to come as there aren’t any huge surprises waiting downstream.

Basement level sound design and gutturally hurled vocals bring chasmic subterranean immerse as ‘Sickening Hallucinations of Altered Existence‘ intensifies song-over-song, hitting peak trample nearby “Mesmerizing Necrotic Eurythmy” and the high-rate riffcraft of “Neural Death“. The latter piece offers one of the most dense and throttled attacks on the full listen and contrasts directly with the Finndeath-doomed rant of standout “Disoriented Afterlife Existence” afterwards. Between those two featured songs Cadaverous Odour are arguably at their best, most representative peak, keeping the thread alive and making cacophonic maelstrom from it; The influence of goregrind/deathgrind should be more obvious on the second half of the experience (esp. “Hypnotic Excruciation”) but I wouldn’t say the band’s efforts ever reach for coherence or even outright simplicity and instead seem intent on kicking up as much dust as possible on the crack through.

While “Funereal Abstraction” and “Disoriented Afterlife Existence” and others leaned into deeper inhaling death/doom atmospheric turns the nearly ~10 minute expanse of closer “The Consumed Rotting Cadaver of Reality” probably uses slower pacing best as a launching point for the Infester-esque qualities of Cadaverous Odour‘s machinery. The intro to the song is the most successful portion of it and generally a strength of Gallant‘s songcraft throughout this debut album as each song finds a way to introduce itself with style before going somewhere with it; The best moments on ‘Sickening Hallucinations of Altered Existence‘ hang in the air, generating a chaotic point of focus for the ear beyond gurgling growls and spastic pulverization, but the appeal of the full listen rests squarely in how the major elements of the band’s sound comingle menacing surrealism with blunt violence.

If Cadaverous Odour‘s main goal per this debut was to call back to the unhinged, messier extremism of early 90’s brutality then ‘Sickening Hallucinations of Altered Existence‘ is a great success marked by both contrasting and eerily enlaced niche-specific interests. Though one’d forgivably head into the experience expecting a toilet bowl caveman gig on sight don’t mistake primitivity for unthinking aesthetic-driven craft. The riffs, nutso leads, and far more ambitious mapping all speak to work towards an at least somewhat serious intent which aligns righteously with true underground maniac death metal. A moderately high recommendation.

Memento Mori LABEL/MAILORDER

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