Upon listening to Disembodiment’s 2021 EP “Mutated Chaos”, the Canadian quartet dropped a convincing release; however, there is something more important that sets this new album to gory territories. After hearing the opening track “Morbid Infestation”. I was hooked on the compositional level of heaviness and grooves. The album features eight rotten death metal tracks, which attribute its style to early Finnish and U.S. bands, eschewing the generic riffing and imitation.

The drums bludgeon us right from the onset of the opening track to the next song, “Stygian Overture”; meanwhile, the guitars nail ripping tremolo riffs as they create a dark, sordid atmosphere in the slower tempos. Heavy and brutal, Disembodiment has an uncanny knack of combining death metal and doom, with a cavernous style that sounds dark and raw. The riffs emphasize catchy hooks and chugging riffs that carry a downbeat tone similar to bands like Incantation.

“Spiral Crypts” is an excellent example of these deep guttural growls and caveman riffs. It’s not hard to distinguish the gutted bass riffs; the quartet moves to murky areas of death metal in such a spectacular way, only to craft infectious riffs and make it too dark before the doom sections are utilized. The atmosphere veers off from raw and old-school to a dreary gloom of death doom, and is meticulously built upon each track.

The drums on “Petrification” gear from mid-paced to up-tempo death metal; the band offers some groove-laden riffs. The blasting sections of the drums are paired with tremolo riffs that boast solid aggression.

The sci-fi keyboards show some fantastic ideas from the quartet on “Larval”, but this sick track has some bouncy, rotten riffs that drip with the dense guitar tone. The chunky pounding riffs and death’n’roll seem to be an interesting mixture that delivers a Swedish straightforward aggression. There aren’t any doom parts on this track; however, Disembodiment pummels you with a heavy and groovy, brutish death metal, and it is also interesting how the band has composed these songs without focusing on slower moments.

The drums offer brutal double bass kicks in “Infected to Rot”, but nothing grabbed my attention like the filthy bass riff that is used after the blast sections. The pace then shifts to a churning tonality; the heavy riffs paired with double pedal drums.

“Spiral Crypts” shifts from cavernous territory to horror-filled atmospheric themes and retro brutality that fit the song structure. The riffing work is raw and often memorable with a crusty production. The final track, “Sentient Inorganic Mess”, has a more Incantation vibe. The grooving riffs are hooky without sounding identical to the previous songs, before fading into a sci-fi synth vibe, but the creepy chills set the tone for a grisly ending.

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