From the swampy, fetid lowlands of Portland, Oregon comes the nasty death-doom tidings of Besotten on their debut nutsmasher, Eye of the Monolithicrypt. Taking inspiration from all the biggest deviants on the grimy end of the death-doom rotpit, Besotten bring the hellaciously heavy riffs, subterranean death croaks, and eerie atmosphere that genre fans long for. In a smashed nutshell, they sound like Incantation, Autopsy, and Demilich thrown in an industrial meat juicer with Worm and Eternal Rot. If that doesn’t get your salivation glands pumping, you have no future in the cesspool sorting business. This is seriously grueling listening for those who like their music disgusting, diseased, and decayed (the “Big 3 Ds” in industry speak). Are you hardy enough to meet the icy stare of the Eye of the Monolithicrypt?
You probably aren’t, but here you are anyway. Opener “Mist of Decay” puts the band’s best deformed clubfoot forward with a classic dose of horrific death-doom brutality. Slow, plodding doom riffs are slathered in gut-spewing vocals, and everything feels thick, wet, and menacing. The guitar tone is tooth-rattling, and the vocals are repellant. In other words, this shit factory sounds awesome. Timely blastbeats erupt to disorient the listener and then slide back to a grinding plod again. It’s a classic death-doom blueprint, but Besotten keep things engaging and heavy as fook. “Bathed in Insufferable Light” is 10 minutes of the same rancid delicacies, and the band demonstrates a fairly deft hand at making a long-form song tolerable. Bright melodic harmonies crawl out of the darkness to dazzle you for fleeting moments before the gunk and muck envelop them again. Meanwhile, the vocals retch, discharge, and ooze the very worst bodily fluids imaginable. They even stuff a soft spoken-word segment in that feels like vintage Saturnus. Is it all too long? Yes, but it still mostly works.
The shorter tracks like the opener and “Cruentation” fare better, delivering the vicious pummeling without dragging things out too long. The latter packs the warhammer and uses it liberally, with Bolt Thrower-esque riffs grinding on you as massive death vocals hector and harass, and the drumming is percussive purgatory designed to destabilize the senses. There are faster bits scattered through that sound like classic Sodom, so bonus points awarded. “Storming the Cerebral Citadel” goes for a raw, blackened flavor that sounds like early Gorgoroth at times, and it too does a good job being abrasive. 11-plus-minute closer “Bloodcairn” does a lot of things well. It pulls out all the pacing tricks heard elsewhere while introducing dreamy, languid segments that border on shoegaze. Naturally, these are set against brutal bits where Besotten try to peel your fat face off with vaguely sharpened stones. There are even pieces that bring out a classic trad metal vibe that reminds of recent Khemmis. It’s a good song, but they definitely could have shaved several minutes off of it. At 36 minutes, Monolithicrypt ends up feeling longer than the sum of its parts, but it’s still an enjoyable journey through the catacombs and caverns of the infected mega-dead.
The bulk of Besotten’s hideous charms come by way of the riffage and noodling from Patrick (no last name given to protect his reputation). He’s clearly studied the greats of death-doom and borrows slimy bits and pieces from Incantation, Disma, and Mortiferum along with several other titans, but you never get the sense he’s recycling the past. His lead work is crushing, and his forays into black and especially trad metal work well to spice up the doom dirges. Vocalist Garth Purkett deserves some kind of an award along with a free trip to the nearest Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. This dude sounds unholy, undead, and unhealthy (the “Big 3 Uns”). His booming roars instill a sense of dread, and his loathsome unchunkifying provides the disgusting ICK factor. He’s a special kind of animal and brings a lot of raw extremity to the Besotten sound.
Eye of the Monolithicrypt is a well-executed slab of slippery, slimy death-doom that offers something for everybody with issues. If Besotten can tighten up their writing a bit, they could be like a dangerous experiment that escapes containment. I like what I’m hearing, and I’ll come back to some of the tracks here even if I don’t stick around for the whole sewage enchilada. If you want to be crushed under the weight of some ginormous abomination’s reeking foot, this will approximate that experience. Brace for stench bombing.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Websites: besotten.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/besottenwithdeath
Releases Worldwide: November 6th, 2026
