Relapse Reco

Critically acclaimed Death Metal force TEMPLE OF VOID return with their new album, The Crawl. The caveman brawn of previous albums, namely Summoning the Slayer (2022), remains, but there's a wider dynamic on the group's fifth full-length album at play. Now a Quartet the Michiganders aren't shying away from their non-metal influences, seeking greater integration of grunge and post-punk with their brutish signature. Singles "The Crawl" and "Soulburn" demonstrate the proficiency of TEMPLE OF VOID's death-cloaked, spearheaded attack. From the high intensity of opener "Poison Icon" to the granite wall of "The Twin Stranger," The Crawl isn't just TEMPLE OF VOID evolved, it's a harbinger of death metal to come.

MALTHUSIAN sign to Relapse Records and unearth their deathly opus, The Summoning Bell. On their highly anticipated new album, MALTHUSIAN's fetid hallmarks are ever present: truly unforgiving, unrelenting Death Metal. Swirling chords and ominous cymbal swells give way to the band's opener "Red, Waiting". What follows is a flurry of murk and madness - blast beats pummel against churns of distortion. The sonic atmosphere cultivated by MALTHUSIAN's palpable fury is suffocating; each riff carefully crafted to push and pull on the momentum behind their music. The Summoning Bell is undeniably a pitch-black take on the genre. The Summoning Bell is a lighting of the pyre - each of the album's tracks explore themes of true nothingness, condemnations of superstition, and a profound descent into darkness and time. The end result is a record that seemingly reconciles with a dimming - internal and external, a true end  to everything.

LIVING GATE unleash their debut full length, Suffer as One! The band, featuring Aaron Rieseberg (YOB,) Lennart Bossu (Oathbreaker, Amenra,) Wim Coppers (Oathbreaker, Wiegedood,) and Levy Seynaeve (Wiegedood,) surfaces from the underground to release one of 2024's most unrelenting, Old School Death Metal records. A follow up to the Deathlust EP and the Internal Decomposition single, LIVING GATE's thesis statement is now bold and clear: old school, heavier-than-anything-ever Death Metal is here to stay.

King Woman: Celestial Blues [CD]

Incantation: Profane Nexus [CD]

Living Gate: Deathlust [CD]

Unearthly Trance: Trident 2006 [CD]