Undeath – It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave (Prosthetic Records)
It’s time to rise from the grave.
And it’s time to check out Undeath, if you haven’t already.
By check out, we mean snap your neck to their vicious, blood-splattered take on death metal.
Emerging from Rochester, NY in 2018, as a trio, the band gained cult status for their Demo ’19 and Sentient Autolysis releases, before piquing the interest of Prosthetic and unleashing Lesions Of A Different Kind in 2020.
Lesions – our 2020 death metal album of the year – was a paean to old school DM, a steaming swamp of viral fretwork and putrid grooves, inspired by prime Cannibal Corpse, Carcass and Autopsy.
It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave, however, goes one better.
Scratch that.
It takes Undeath – now a quintet – several steps forward, without losing the noxious essence that made Sentient Autolysis turn heads.
Kyle Beam’s writing is so sharp it gleams.
There is far greater emphasis on choruses here than we’ve heard before (see Rise From The Grave for exhibit A).
And infectious riffs erupt like arterial spray from Beam and fellow guitarist Jared Welch, who joined the fold post-Lesions.
The combination is lethal.
And bolstered by a superior production, It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave drills deep into your brain matter.
It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave shows Undeath are here to stay
Undeath have an innate understanding of classic death metal songcraft.
They don’t overcomplicate anything.
Neither do they linger too long in the primordial grime.
You only have to listen to the skin-flaying Necrobionics to understand that.
There’s variety to the act’s work too.
Head Splattered In Seven Ways is deranged, Cannibal-esque carnage, topped by a monstrous performance from frontman Alexander Jones, while on Human Chandelier, the band lurch from bludgeoning grooves into disorientating, chilling horror hooks.
Indeed, there are surprises at every turn on It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave.
A deft turn of pace there, a wild, flailing lead there… the adrenaline just keeps spiking.
This opus is a thrill ride, make no mistake, one fuelled by a devotion to death metal’s pioneers and driven by a true passion for the dark arts.
It’s addictive. Enthralling. Unhinged. An album that taps straight into DM’s source code.
And it proves that Undeath’s time is now.
Band photo: Errick Easterday.