#deedsofflesh — Public Fediverse posts

After no less than three albums’ worth of glowing praise from my great predecessor Kronos, it’s safe to say that a new Archspire is a big deal in the hall.1 One blistering offering after another has cemented these lads as among the forerunners of tech-death, pushing BPM and bass-string structural integrity in equal measure. But the human body, alas, has limits, and with previous release Bleed the Future already pushing the speedometer well into the red, one could be forgiven for invoking the oldest of clichés: Where do they go from here? There’s only so much speed, so much scale wankery to be derived from mere flesh and bone. With a bit of a self-referential title in Too Fast to Die, Archspire have made their mission statement clear and concise; will their meteoric rise continue to light up the sky, or will their first independent release see them crash and burn?

Archspire have officially been around long enough to say “Expect the expected.” Too Fast to Die continues the band’s whirlwind musical trajectory, with an emphasis on scorching tempos and arpeggios delivered at string-withering pace. New drummer Spence Moore (formerly of Inferi, among others) plays like the lives of his family depend on it, etching his identity into the music with a smorgasbord of snare fills and delightful rhythmic shifts which somehow manage to maintain a blasting pace without ever smearing together into one double-bass-filled haze. Vocalist Oliver Aleron continues to sound pulled from an alternate universe where Atilla doesn’t suck,2 spitting syllable-heavy diatribes with gleeful abandon and an s-tier talent for phrasing which lets him compliment the intensity rather than overwhelm it. Enough breathing room is given to the bass, letting Jared Smith fill in the cracks with sweeps that rumble and clang under the chords with vibrancy and potent kinetic energy (“Red Goliath”) before disappearing back under the assault. Everything is excellently executed, engaging, and familiar.

Too Fast to Die by Archspire

And yet, there is a clear rumbling of growth and evolution in the Archspire camp. Rather than openly go out of their way to crank all the knobs from 11 to 12, Too Fast to Die puts heavy stock on pathos-riddled melody, with a heavier leaning on atmospheric theatrics and amphitheater-ready harmonies which don’t seek to overwhelm as much as invigorate and inspire. Album highlight “Carrion Ladder” features a midsection with a pair of leads so relatively simple a fledgling guitar student could learn to play them, yet thanks to the band’s compositional mastery, this simplicity isn’t an anticlimactic letdown as much as a genuine moment of appreciable, raw beauty, not to mention it features one of Oliver’s catchiest vocal parts. Such moments are littered throughout the album, with the borderline emotional chug section of “Limb of Leviticus” transitioning into the band’s traditional plucked interludes with melancholy rather than neo-classical sheen. Archspire’s interludes in older albums would have sounded just as appropriate if played by harpsichord as much as guitar, but Too Fast to Die eschews just a touch of that dual identity to place a heavier focus on thematic coherence with massive dividends.

Nevertheless, this is still a death metal record, and any gushing over emotive power and atmospheric bombast shouldn’t frighten away fans. “Liminal Cypher” features an absolutely devastating slamming section, and “Deadbolt the Backward” briefly dispenses with the atmospheres and opts for sudden shifts of waltz time signatures and straightforward brutality akin to Deeds of Flesh covering an Origin song. The most tendinitis-inducing of leads kick down your front door in “Anomalous Descent” only to suddenly shift identities and flirt with the briefest of hardcore stylings while putting an exclamation point on the proceedings with honest-to-goodness gang vocals. Somehow, this works. While Archspire haven’t quite gone prog on us with clean vocals and a litany of guest instruments (thank God), it’s delightful to see them stretching their artistic wings in so many directions and skillsets, despite promotional material perhaps pitching them as a one-trick pony of speed.

I haven’t been as high on Archspire as some of my colleagues. I enjoyed them, but felt such a style could only be mined so much. Too Fast to Die is Archspire commanding me to take those opinions and violate myself with them, track after track after track. This album sees the band embracing their not-so-newfound star status and offering an experience that is riddled with crowd-engaging moments, meticulously engineered pit fodder, and leads of such beauty that you could sing them in the shower, without sacrificing an ounce of the Africanized-bees-on-red-bull songwriting backbone. “Where do they go from here?” I wondered? Well, the answer is “bigger and better”, and if we are entering a new era of grandiosity over raw technique, I’m so here for it. You should be, too.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: Yet another stream, come on, guys
Label: Self-release
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: April 10th, 2026

Unfortunately, the mighty Relapse stable now floats down the shitty stream for promos. As such, we are slow on the uptake with the latest platter of splatter from legendary underground gorehounds, Exhumed. Always searching for fresh inspiration for their deathly brand of precision butchery, tenth album Red Asphalt channels inner road rage via good old carmageddon mayhem and vehicular violence as its overarching conceptual theme. Otherwise, it’s business as usual for Exhumed, returning with a tight, signature blast of groovy, thrashy, blasting deathgrind, led by seasoned underground warrior Matt Harvey (guitars/vocals). Joined by right-hand man Ross Sewage on uber low vox and bowel rumbling bass, alongside drummer Mike Hamilton (Deeds of Flesh) and guitarist Sebastian Phillips (Castle Freak, Mammoth Grinder, End Reign). Red Asphalt marks their first album since 2022’s solid and well-received To the Dead, a welcome return for these ever-reliably vicious brutes. With a high reliability factor baring well for a good arse kicking, how does Red Asphalt fare against a bulletproof modern run of albums since their second coming on 2011’s All Guts, No Glory?

Kicking off with the blistering “Unsafe at Any Speed,” Exhumed pull no punches in a typically exuberant, brutal yet wickedly infectious style. The riffs rip and burn with reckless abandon, drums set a scorching tempo, while the dueling vox, trade-off solos, and gut-punching grooves land vital blows of awesomeness. It feels familiar yet fresh and the right amount of pungent. Striking a balance between the sharp melodicism and grooving charms of modern classic Necrocracy, mutated with the blunt force savagery of Horror, and a dash of the more primitive goregrind stylings of their early days, Red Asphalt finds Exhumed subtly tweaking their formula to remain vibrantly dangerous deep into their career. Through modern refinement and sharp, technical execution, Exhumed maintain their gritty, no-frills edge and slick but organic sounding production, while the grindy, blast-riddled attack and sick dual vox ensure these old dogs still pack a brutal, unhinged punch.

Careening recklessly from one gnarly, adrenaline-fueled incident to the next, Exhumed mostly jam the gears high and slam the pedal to the floor, weaving twisted cables of melody through mangled wreckages of deathgrind mayhem and gore-soaked grooves. “Red Asphalt” unleashes thrashy uppercuts and Heartwork-inspired melodeath flair to killer effect. More measured cuts (“Shovelhead,” “Death on Four Wheels”) detonate slower, crushing devices, bloodied riffs, and dicing solos to slamming impact. When Exhumed are not grinding and pummeling with deathly intent, their thrashy tendencies take hold, offering a trademark punky, turbo-charged counterpoint on numerous high-octane scorchers (“Shock Trauma,” “The Iron Graveyard,” “Symphorophilia”). “Shock Trauma” deftly incorporates screaming, emergency siren solos into an explosive barrage of searing deathgrind battery, showing Exhumed can still blast and brutalize with the best of them.

Performances are uniformly tight and deranged, Harvey again proving an elite riff meister, sharpening his tools of the trade to whip up a frenzy with Philips, including a generous bounty of killer, infectious riffs and tasty, slashing solos. The shredding is top-grade stuff, adding a wild and reckless melodic edge to the album (check the ripping axe pyrotechnics on “Death on Four Wheels” and “Crawling from the Wreckage”). Vocally, Harvey and Sewage sound as savage as ever, forming one of the best dual vocal combos this side of Dying Fetus, albeit a gentle push forward in the mix would have been welcome. At a taut thirty-seven minutes, Red Asphalt blasts by in an efficient, addictive fashion, by the time “The Fumes” engulf your senses to close out the album. Aside from a couple of stock moments, Exhumed’s songwriting sounds energized and inspired, nearly thirty years since they dropped their debut.

Red Asphalt stands up to scrutiny as another high-quality modern platter to add to Exhumed’s ever-impressive repertoire. Exhumed rarely miss, testament to their dedication and skilled craftsmanship in remaining a bulldozing force in the modern death metal arena, carrying the Carcass-inspired torch, yet transcending the influence of their forebearers. Exhumed’s timelessly fun and feverish brand of old school brutality, filtered through a modern lens, and packed with sharp riffs, sharper hooks, is a thrashing, grooving, blasting good time. Red Asphalt arguably edges the past couple of Exhumed albums, resulting in a bloody crash course in deathgrind lunacy, grisly grooves, and melodic smarts.



Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Stinking stream
Label: Relapse Records
Websites: exhumed.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/exhumedofficial
Releases Worldwide: February 20th, 2026

Putridity – Morbid Ataraxia Review

By Alekhines Gun

Formed in the early 2000s, Putridity are an Italian brutal death band. With roots as a solo project by a former member of Obscene Perversion, the outfit grew from a one-man-basement dream into a fully fledged lineup of slowly increasing reputation from infrequent release to release. A decade has passed since the previous full-length Ignominious Atonement, though the recently released Greedy Gory Gluttony EP finds the band with a refreshed but stable lineup and an enhanced taste for lethality. With last year being a stunning time for brutal death of all shapes and sizes, and this year already facing challenges from young bands and veterans alike, do these brutal statesmen have an argument for a place at the top of the beatings heap?

Morbid Ataraxia puts a lot of stock in its hefty production. A spacious tonal palate allows the nonstop battering-ram drumming of Cédric Malebolgia to erupt from underneath the riffs, with heavy emphasis put on snare violation and rapid-fire cymbal interplay. Vocalist Andrea Piro features a fierce guttural that channels the spirit of vintage Analepsy, human and caustic without deteriorating into pure trash compactor indecipherability. The tones of founder Putrid Ciccio and Manuel Lucchini unfortunately drown out bassist Giancarlo Mendo but make up for it in raw punch, straddling a perfect line between just enough treble for progressions to be heard and enough bottom end to sound like driving cement mixers. For an album that hinges on breakneck speed and more blasts than a military training ground, this breadth of clarity allows each savage moment to be present and accounted for with extreme prejudice to the listener.

At its best, Morbid Ataraxia is a precise and clinical display of the “never-ending cyclone of riffs” class of brutal death. Title track “Morbid Ataraxia” features a devastatingly foul plod of a chug while drums erupt with boiling rage underneath. “Overflowing Mortal Smell” manages to make a shuddering groove out of rarely placed halftime (for the tempo) riffage. Add more pinch harmonic-based phrasing than I can count, and time signature changes from measure to measure, and you have a recipe for a dose of relentless assault from cover to cover. The entire album is connected via samples, which range from ambient vocal gurgling and a (possibly unintentional) throwback to a vintage Skinless cut to the far more unsettling. The unexpectedly ambient ebb and flow of the album, with the samples bisecting various tracks and the constant gargling throughout the empty spaces lends Morbid Ataraxia a proper LP vibe, meant to be consumed in one sitting from beginning to end.

However, the worst thing about Morbid Ataraxia is that it’s a precise and clinical display of the “never-ending cyclone of riffs” class of brutal death. An excessive overreliance on pinch harmonics and monochrome snare abuse give the first half of the album a monotonous feeling, where each track feels like it could be substituted into another slot without impacting much of the album’s flow. Putridity traffic heavily in a vintage Deeds of Flesh approach to riff-craft, with moment to moment flowing into itself with little thought of hooks or repetition or accessibility. That’s fine, to a point; certainly big anthemic choruses aren’t what we are here for. But depending entirely on an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to song craft means you need your individual riffs to actually pack a punch beyond their tone, and here is where the album falls flat. Two songs in, you will have heard every bag of tricks Putridity has to offer; not just the harmonics but limited drum styling, minimal lead flourishes, and speedy grinding chord progressions, all of which are quite lethal in their immediacy but ineffective in retaining attention ’til the back half of the album.

Putridity is a good band, and Morbid Ataraxia is a fine album, but the few highs it has presented have left me wanting more. The production is a delight, and individual performances are certainly top-notch. However, the band fails in overcoming brutal death’s greatest hurdle, which is to be perpetually interesting and not just obscenely heavy. The approach of stitching all the tracks together implies a concept of some sort, and I’d like to see them continue this approach in the future, but with widened wings in the composition department. For now, if you’re still chasing the brutality dragon, Putridity have you covered; just consider the artwork and don’t ask what you’re covered in.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip Records
Websites: Album Bandcamp | Official Instagram
Releases Worldwide: June 27th, 2025

#25 #Analepsy #BrutalDeathMetal #DeedsOfFlesh #ItalianMetal #Jun25 #MorbidAtaraxia #ObscenePerversion #Putridity #Review #Reviews #Skinless #WillowtipRecords

Gigan – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

By Maddog

Back in the early 2010s, Gigan wooed me with their lovably absurd album titles, like 2013’s Multi-Dimensional Fractal-Sorcery and Super Science. Luckily, Gigan had the musical chops to back it up. Their distinctive blend of brutal death metal, skronky technicality, and alien atmospheres made me a cult megafan. Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus interrupts a seven-year silence, and the only staffers thrilled about its arrival were myself and Alekhines Gun. In retrospect, this is understandable; AAI is a weird album by a weird band, and it’s unlikely to win over anyone who isn’t already so inclined. While Gigan’s newest is a lot to chew on, it offers a great glimpse into why I’ve stood gaping for over a decade.

If Mithras is Morbid Angel in space, then Gigan is Wormed in space. Eric Hersemann’s guitars lay the foundation, playing Defeated Sanity riffs at an Archspire pace. However, in its melodies, its composition, and its production, the album is foremost an atmospheric journey, not a riff-fest. Hersemann’s guitar and bass lines sound otherworldly through their dissonance and sudden transformations (“Erratic Pulsitivity and Horror”). Eschewing simple song structures, Gigan’s uneasy odysseys take several focused listens to make any sense. Straying from the genre’s typical clinical production, AAI opts for a reverb-laden wall of noise that resembles a muddled Mithras. This remains my biggest gripe, as the album’s cloudy guitar sound untooths its impressive melodies. Conversely, AAI’s highlight might be its drumming. Nathan Cotton’s world-class performance excels in its raw technicality, its frenzied evolution, and its cockpit role in the album’s ebb and flow. But most of all, it wows through its raw humanity. On highlights like “Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenuis,” the attention to detail in Cotton’s performance shines through every beat and can only be described as beautiful. While that word isn’t common in brutal death metal reviews, it’s a testament to Gigan’s singular sound.

Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus is a wild journey. Gigan steamrolls the listener with brutal riffs, appealing to idiots like me without devolving into idiocy themselves (“Square Wave Subversion”). On the other end, Gigan’s skronky adventures are grand slams. The latter half of “Trans-Dimensional Crossing…” blends light-speed brutality with Morse Code guitars that remain the album’s highlight, while “Emerging Sects of Dagonic Acolytes” captivates me with The Velvet Underground-style chaos. Armed with bulletproof melodies in their right hand and chaos in their left, Gigan’s compositions feel like Lovecraftian narratives. Most strikingly, the shrieking melodies and distorted drum-led chorus of “The Strange Harvest of the Baganoids” evoke visceral terror for the plight of those poor Baganoids.1 Gigan fares less well when they sacrifice riffs for amorphous meanderings, especially on longer tracks (“Emerging Sects…”). But when AAI wields riffcraft and atmosphere in unison, it stands unmatched. For instance, the closer “Ominous Silhouettes…” wows with what sounds like a Deeds of Flesh riff being played by a depressed Martian, leading into dual-guitar screeches à la Pyrrhon. Engrossing and ever-evolving, Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus immerses the listener in its saga.

While snippets of Gigan bear the signatures of other bands, no one else has ever made music like this. Although its bloat and its muddy sound hold it back, Gigan’s comeback is a rewarding specimen of their unconventional brand of brutal death metal. Dissonant, brutal, grimy, and alien, Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus is tough to digest even for the Gigan-initiated. Ears shall be split, brows shall be furrowed, and poseurs shall be (strangely) harvested. Few will survive. But those that do will have quite a story to tell.

Tracks to Check Out: “Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenuis,” “The Strange Harvest of the Baganoids”

#2024 #AmericanMetal #AnomalousAbstractigateInfinitessimus #AtmosphericDeathMetal #BrutalDeathMetal #DeathMetal #DeedsOfFlesh #DefeatedSanity #DissonantDeathMetal #Gigan #Mithras #Pyrrhon #TechnicalBrutalDeathMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TheVelvetUnderground #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #TYMHM #Wormed