Terror Corpse – Ash Eclipses Flesh Review

By Saunders

Already boasting a killer debut EP to their name in 2025, courtesy of the sick, old school deathgrind mayhem comprising Systems of Apocalypse, Texan wrecking crew Terror Corpse hit the ground running in their short time together. The newly minted outfit come seasoned with underground cred, featuring members that have logged time in the likes of Malignant Altar, Oceans of Slumber, Necrofier and Insect Warfare. Recording the EP as a five-piece, debut full-length Ash Eclipses Flesh finds Terror Corpse stripping back to a trio and shifting tact musically. While remnants of the heavily grind-influenced charge of Systems of Apocalypse remains intact, Terror Corpse mine the fetid soil of vintage death metal, citing the likes of Celtic Frost, Incantation and pre-2000s Morbid Angel as key influences. Throw in shades of Immolation, Terrorizer, early Carcass and Exhumed, and you have a recipe for a good old-fashioned beatdown. However, don’t be fooled into thinking Terror Corpse is a run-of-the-mill act riding the decaying coattails of legacy acts of the past. Ash Eclipses Flesh respects the past, while paving its own twisted path through grisly killing fields and dank caverns of grotesqueries.

Terror Corpse merge old timey underground aesthetics with a vital injection of their own character and modern appeal. Presenting a grimy and wickedly brutal collection of grind-encrusted old-school death, Terror Corpse both encompasses and deviates from the deathgrind formula of the EP, pivoting into deathlier, guttural realms. Any disappointment of the sound shift is swiftly bludgeoned on opening track “Pyre of Ash and Bone.” The song makes a hellish statement, hammering down violent, riffy death marches through menacing atmospheres, as uber low guttural vox, squealing leads, and livewire drumming seal the deal. Dobber Beverly again cements his status as a cult legend in extreme metal drumming. Also handling guitar duties with main vocalist Mat V, the duo reinforces the album’s retro, brutish charms, primitive clubbings, and ominous atmosphere with a vital collection of top-shelf riffs, mangled leads, and headbangable delights.

Ash Eclipses Flesh revels in shifting gears from dense, noisy chaos and relentless blasts to knuckle-dragging grooves, and monstrous, caverncore-esque swarms, Terror Corpse also incorporate infectious bursts of thrashy death and gnarled, punkish grind into the fray. After a solid, respectable beginning, Ash Eclipses Flesh really hits stride on third cut “Womb of the Hollow Earth,” and it’s a ripping, high-potency ride from here on in. Elsewhere, they delve into death-doom slogs, inflicted upon the devastating “Fallout Obliteration,” and punishing mid-section on the lurching, vicious stomp of “Sons of Perdition.” Refusing to neglect their classic grindcore and splattery deathgrind roots, Terror Corpse bring the filth and dual vox, including shrieky highs, to the thrashing intensity of “Nuclear Winter.” Meanwhile, the tremendous “The Hollow That Devours” intersperses cavernous double bass rumbles and thrashy bursts with immense mid-paced chuggery and thick, insidious grooves.

Versatile tinkering of their songwriting formula ensures the songs chart diverse territories, while remaining uncompromisingly brutal and wickedly infectious. Even the closing cover of Celtic Frost’s “Into the Crypts of Rays” doesn’t feel wasteful or tacked on. Terror Corpse inject the song’s anthemic, punky edge with their own beefed-up deathgrind spark. Beverly’s energetic, nuanced drumming proves essential as the album’s beating heart, driving the fluctuating pulse rate and need for speed, slick tempo shifts, and rambunctious, sewage-coated grooves. The power of the riff compels, not through technical wizardry, but courtesy of a firm understanding of the genre’s classic origins and grimy, atmospheric underpinnings. Infectious and rancidly beefy riffs, wildly unhinged leads, and sinister melodic currents define the excellent axework. There are no glaring flaws or major drawbacks preventing a strong recommendation. Perhaps you could argue Terror Corpse aren’t doing anything especially new or innovative, while the dominant, incomprehensible gutturals might be a tough sell for some listeners.

Twenty-twenty-five has delivered diverse treats across the metalverse, including top-notch death metal releases of varied persuasions within the genre. Ash Eclipses Flesh is another not to be missed. What they lack in bells, whistles, techy flair or innovation, Terror Corpse more than compensate through their authentic and fresh spin on a vintage sound. A tightly performed, superbly produced, and invigorating slab of riffy old school death, armed with gnarled deathgrind and grisly brutal death ammunition, Ash Eclipses Flesh is a surefire corker and end-of-year list disruptor.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dark Descent Records
Websites: Facebook | Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: November 21st, 2025

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For #ThursDeath:

#RitualMass: Cascading Misery

https://album.link/i/1825107610

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Ossuary – Abhorrent Worship Review

By Alekhines Gun

These days, it seems like people get their idea of what “cavernous” should sound like from people who read about caves in books. Incantation are supposed to be the torch bearers for the subgenre, but they have sounded more like a facsimile of the sound for decades, and even more filthy modern equivalents like Funebrarum or Vastum still manage to sound like a studio imitation of what should be a raw and organic aural depiction. Drilling through the limestone and sporting some concerningly bloody tools, Ossuary have arrived with their debut full-length Abhorrent Worship, with the promo itself promising the album will open up a cave for you, dear listener, to die in. I’m a big believer in being threatened with a good time, so grab your spelunking gear and watch out for the guano poisoning!

Ossuary have conjured up an excellent presentation of the cavernous sound. Abhorrent Worship sounds positively vile, with every riff drenched in grime and slithering sounds. The big reason for this is the disgusting bass tone offered up by Matt Jacobs. While never getting any solos or spotlight, his bass is cranked up in the mix and hits brown noise levels of depth, with a rattle that sounds like it’s rotting out the woofer on my speakers with every spin. This gives the Malignant Altar styled bounce of “Instinctual Prostration” or the vintage Autopsy waltz of “Inborn Scourge Unbound” reverb and depth, masterfully unleashing the echoing abandoned cave aesthetic. The guitars are no slouches in tone either, with Izzi Plunket summoning the spirit of the gone-before-their-time Cavurn1 in riff style while channeling demo-era Demilich filth in presentation. Whiffs of Suffering Hour treble peppers occasional moments (“Barren Lamentation”) while never giving into anything which could remotely be described as melodic, with sustained chords digging deeper into the earth’s crust in depth and sound.

And when Ossuary gets to really digging, the ground opens up to swallow you whole. “Volitional Entropy” leads in with one of the single greatest death/doom riffs I have ever heard, a massive earworm which evolves from a droning lurch into a titanic mantle-chucker as it builds and swirls. “Forsaken Offerings (To the Doomed Spirit)” channels vintage Tomb Mold into a build that collapses into a chuggathon and hellish blasts. “Barren Lamentation” acts as the grand album finale with a slow-building curtain closer of a groove, which is rendered more intense by the drumming of Nick Johnson picking up the pace as the droning repeats. Each song in Abhorrent Worship functions as a build to a climax, with at least one high-caliber riff to be found in every menacing cut.

The only downside to a tension-and-release style composition is that you have to be uniformly interesting in your transitions as much as your explosions, and it is here that Ossuary stumbles. Many chugging sections go on far too long (“Forsaken Offerings…” being the biggest offender), and not every climax impales you on the same stalagmite2. There’s a clear hierarchy of quality from song to song, and while the atmosphere is unrelenting and nothing slips underneath “good,” discernible highs and lows in the composition detract from the overall body of work. Cavernous death is inherently a limited style by its nature, and the only way to make up for that is with the writing being as uniformly well executed in composition as it is in tone. Abhorrent Worship absolutely nails the sound and aesthetic, and at their best, offer up a hellish vision of the most cavernous depths, but it doesn’t have the clear sense of gold-quality from beginning to end needed to make it stand out in an inherently monochrome genre.

Nevertheless, I have emerged from the cave covered in bat poo and blood that is disconcertingly not my own with tales of delight. Ossuary have presented an enjoyable presentation of the cavernous sound, and despite its compositional flaws, I find myself somewhat smitten. If they can make every song hit with the same pic axe sharpness while maintaining the foulness of their production, future releases will offer us bleak horrors indeed. For now, if you haven’t gone cave diving in a while, I highly recommend joining in a chorus of Abhorrent Worship for a good spiritual cleanse. Just make sure you bring extra batteries for your flashlight…

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo Records
Websites: Album Bandcamp | Official Instagram
Releases Worldwide: May 23rd, 2025

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FULL FORCE FRIDAY:🆕December 16th Release #3🎧

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