Welcome once more unto Death’s Door, ye hellions. It’s been a minute since our last entry, but we’re back with more audio violence for your skull holes. It’s been a good year in the death metal world. So here’s some more.
End of year content is going to be absolutely diabolical in 2025 when it comes to death metal. The amount of monumental releases from voices new and old we’ve been gifted this year continues the genre’s domination as the extreme music world’s most consistently excellent space, and the thought of narrowing all the releases down makes my head hurt. But that’s a problem for future Jon. Present Jon will just keep blasting sick tunes until his neck snaps. It’s a good time to be a metalhead. Feast with us on the bloody harvest of sick riffs amply provided by some of the most talented folks in the game.
Death metal. Forever.
-Jonathan Adams
Cream of the Crop
Cryptopsy - An Insatiable Violence
Over a storied career, I’m hard pressed to find a band more haunted by the shadow of their best record than Canadian brutalists Cryptopsy. While this is nothing inherently new when it comes to the mid- and late-career work of legendary acts, it’s a particularly cumbersome cross to bear when that benchmark was an album released eight full-length releases and nearly 30 years ago. None So Vile is a true cornerstone record in the world of brutal death metal and extreme metal at large, and the weight of that classic crown has weighed heavily on Cryptopsy. Various lineup changes and several high quality releases later the refrain has remained the same: “Not even close to NSV.” I’m here to argue that every legendary act does not need to match their best work to be considered of value, and An Insatiable Violence is proof positive of that assertion.
I’ll state it plainly from the rip. Cryptopsy’s ninth record is a blistering, menacing, expertly crafted and executed brutal death metal assault and stands on its own as one of the band’s best releases. Which is saying something, because believe it or not None So Vile is not the only great record this band has released. A step up from their previous (and quite good) release As Gomorrah Burns, this collection of tracks is replete with memorable riffs, intense performances, and song structures that are cogent and easily re-listenable. At this stage in their career Cryptopsy’s songwriting apparatus has definitively learned the value of sticking to the best aspects of their sound, and there are absolutely no duds on the tracklist here. “Dead Eyes Replete” presents one of the best examples of what this iteration of Cryptopsy is capable of, and it’s one of their most effective tunes in years.
I’m fully aware that music is an entirely subjective artistic medium, and that opinions will vary widely on what is considered to be quality music within a genre. But there is a particular strand of elitism that drives me insane, and it’s the narrative Cryptopsy has plodded through for most of their career. “X record is their best and only record and nothing band creates after can be considered on its own merit without strict track-by-track comparison to stated record band wrote 30 years ago.” It’s a boring, old, and thoroughly unadventurous way to approach a band’s musical evolution, and in my view limits the ability as a listener to appreciate a band’s artistic evolution, with all the twists and turns that entails. Listeners are by no means required to enjoy these new manifestations (I mean… The Unspoken King is bad), but to constrict a band to one amazing record as their only point of comparison just feels absurd. An Insatiable Violence is a perfect example of the value of letting bands grow beyond their classics, and the results are truly epic.
-JA
Best of the Rest
In Mourning - The Immortal
In Mourning and yours trvely have a special relationship. Most bands of their progressive/melodic death ilk click with my proclivities immediately, or (very rarely) not at all. Usually there is a certain falloff after a while, when I’ve slun the album so deeply into my mind and memory that its luster fades for a while and I come back to it after a break, rarely, or sometimes not at all.
In Mourning hits differently. It took me quite a long time of sporadic listening to ‘get’ them, and even longer until I finally really started spinning some of their albums (especially my favorites Garden of Storms and tied seconds The Weight of Oceans and The Bleeding Veil) voraciously. Even now, these are still growing on me with each subsequent spin.
This presents me with some probable outcomes concerning The Immortal, these Swedes’ latest triumph. Either their subtly majestic formula definitively clicked with me, or this album is more immediately gratifying, or this is their best album yet (by quite a distance) and it will ascend to paramount status on my In Mourning tier list and possibly broader lists as well. It will probably be a mix of these, but I’m happily contemplating the last of the three.
Between gorgeously hooky choruses (“Song of the Cranes”: “North Star”), plaintive melodies (“The Hounding”, “Moonless Sky”, “Silver Crescent”), bouncy and infectious yet intricate riffing (“The Sojourner”; “Silver Crescent") and even some more melodic black metal escapades (“Staghorn”; “The Hounding”) there are many morose morsels laden on this scintillating smorgasbord.
Masters of both emotional and cerebral songwriting, In Mourning offer a supremely balanced addition to their discography, that is as per usual elevated by impressively technical yet nuanced and never overwrought performances across the board. A personal standout are Tobias Netzells cleans, which are the perfect cheerless cherry on top of this sulky-sweet sundae. Guitars, bass and drums all shine brightly and often, though, and the band works together in heartstring-plucking harmony to propel The Immortal straight upwards towards stellar, twinkling reaches.
Whether you’re a fan of In Mourning, enjoy melodic or progressive death metal in general, or just want to cut your teeth on some of the more enticing metal I’ve heard this year, look no further.
-BK
Sallow Moth - Mossbane Lantern
At this point, it is impossible to peg down Gerry Brents. To be honest, this has been the case for several years now but the situation seems to spiral more and more out of control. However, my main engagement with Brents’ many, many musical projects remains around death metal. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely appreciate his other work and Gonemage was the first project of his that I covered for the blog. But I feel like Brents’ passion for heavy, progressive, and weird death metal aligns so perfectly well with mine that it draws me in like no other style of music that he ends up making. Which is why Mossbane Lantern was such a joy for me to hear; more than any other previous release, including Sallow Moth’s own previous albums, it cuts to the bone of why I love progressive death metal so much.
To wit, Mossbane Lantern is just the exact combination of the above elements that I cited, plus a lot of understated but no less important groove. Opener “Gutscape Navigator” is a perfect example: in between the gurgled vocals, weird choirs, and breakneck time signature changes, there are a few riffs that are just purely danceable. This supercharges the track with irresistible energies and even some cohesion among the chaos that riles around the entire release. By the time the downright crystalline vocals come in to shuffle the sound once again, you are thoroughly engaged, waiting for the outro to pay off all of this charged energies in glorious catharsis. And pay off it does, with an absolutely gorgeous last minute and a half, hauntingly beautiful and atmospheric.
And that’s why I love progressive death metal so much. As showcased throughout Mossbane Lantern, from opening track to closing, it has so much potential, paints with such a wide brush and varied palette. It has melancholy, rage, and violence but also delicateness, introspection, and wonder. When put in the hands of a master like Brents, who really understands what makes the genre tick and why people love it so much, it unfurls into the beautiful, acrid, and touching flower that is Mossbane Lantern.
-Eden Kupermintz