I could just address the elephant in the room and talk about the artwork for Subcutaneous Tomb, and if that’s what happens, then it happens. That’s the most important part, right? Not how the album sounds, but whether or not it resembles Gorguts’ eponymous debut, Considered Dead, and the artwork for that album…

That’s silly. Ever since Pestilence did their AI album cover, people have been crying foul about the death of real artists and this and that. It’s gotten a bit ridiculous for me anyway. So I looked really close at both, and they have one thing in common: a fucking casket in the center. That’s it. Otherwise, it’s totally different designs, and I can’t believe I spent two paragraphs on that shit. What the fuck am I doing with my life?

Well, how is the album? You know, the musical part of this thing. I like it! Yes, a debut, so there’s still footing to be found, but it’s a ripper. This is a follow-up to 2024’s split with Kill the Lord entitled Decrowned II: Trinity Ablaze / Pilgrims of Morbidity, so if you know you’re one ahead of me.

“Pointless Anguish” kicks things off with the tone that made Austria in the 90s a hotbed of Death Metal goodness. Grimy and frigid but sort of French in a way that has to be heard to understand. These aren’t short songs; there are no pretty little silly ones. “Asphyxiate in Exile” follows with a sick as fuck riff that rings and rattles inside your skull, and it doesn’t let up for its 4:18 minute length.

These guys fuck heavily with the vibes that Pungent Stench, Disharmonic Orchestra, and Disastrous Murmur birthed many years ago. Subcutaneous Tomb is fucking ugly and repulsive in the adorable way that a mutated baby would be. It’s got an unrelenting production that keeps the feeling of OSDM while adding a bit of the new school, as well. It’s not magnificent, but it is fun and has tons of hear,t which goes a long way.

“Cries from the Ether” is the longest track, coming in at a respectable 7:1,4, and since there’s room to play around with it, they do exactly that. Piling riffs like bodies in a massive grave, and as the song rolls merrily along, it gathers intensity. Followed hotly by being dragged into “The Depths of Lividity”, where your soul is beaten to a quivering mass of pulp.

The absolutely ripping “Yizkor” and “Living Funeral” round out this brain-drilling full-length, and buddy, I’m here for it. The former track strides like a knuckle-dragging primate across an Incantation Onwards to Golgatha wasteland, scattered blasting, and that cavernous Death Metal machine that keeps hitting like a battering ram. Fessus keep things balanced throughout Subcutaneous Tomb. The final track has that Disastrous Murmur feeling that made them huge as fuck. It’s a bit strange when it gets mid-track, but it’s absolutely fine because that was Austrian Death Metal in the 90s: obscene and explicit.

As previously stated, I can’t help liking Subcutaneous Tomb. I might get hate about the album art, but honestly, I don’t fucking care. It doesn’t look anything like Gorguts’ debut any more than Barney looked like an actual fucking dinosaur. I didn’t draw it; if you don’t like it, that’s a problem, table for one. However musically this is a suitably brutal album for your listening enjoyment. So what are you waiting for? Close your eyes and rock out!

[Visit the band's website]

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