Retromorphosis - Psalmus Mortis

Retromorphosis – Psalmus Mortis
Release Date: 21st February 2025
Label: Season Of Mist
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Technical Death Metal.
FFO: Spawn of Possession, Obscura, Decrepit Birth, Necrophagist.
Review By: Mark Young

With a line-up that has come together from Spawn of Possession, Obscura, Necrophagist, The Allseeing and Decrepit Birth amongst their numbers, you expect the following 42 minutes to come flying in and basically lay waste to your ears and do it with a certain sense of style.

After the opening instrumental introduction has come in, the frenzy begins properly with Vanished all blasts, trem picking and pinched harmonics. These guys are in a hurry, and it’s there for all to hear as Vanished takes no time in showing just how they do things. There’s a feeling that they are hanging on for dear life during as it tears around, but this isn’t just straightforward death metal. Riffs stop on a penny; directions change, and it’s hard to get a grip on it as the song rips from one path to another. There’s brutality and virtuosity served up with some masterful lead work and I suggest listening to this with quality headphones, especially on Aunt Christie’s Will, as it sounds massive. The balanced attack that was delivered on Vanished is amped up, this is Death Metal that is unafraid of bringing in different touches to make a polished whole. Simple chugging is fine, but here they actively seek out new ways of making the song fly. It keeps to the core tenets of the genre, but without being rigid. Everything is there, but it hits differently, and I think the key is that they have got their own view on how Death Metal should sound in 2025.

All of this is there to get us to Machine, which is nothing short of magnificent. Starting with a rapid chug, the song undertakes a form of growth that I didn’t expect. It keeps one eye on making sure that brutality is in place, but not at the cost of some exceptional melody lines. I mentioned earlier about riffs changing direction at will, here when it happens it is like they are completing a chapter in a story and are then moving onto the next one. The arrangement is something else, the lead work around 6 minutes is as good as anything you will hear in this or any other genre. And the drums? This is a masterclass. There is an emotional heft to how the song plays out, and personally I think it’s one of the songs of the year.

So how do you follow that? Wisely, they don’t try to. Exalted Splendour comes in as a blast of technically driven thunder that settles into its role as final song. Putting Machine to one side, it follows the same direction as the others in that it combines speed, ability and a controlled fury in how it plays out. The melodic lines are there, again played like a train that is about to leave the tracks. It’s that feeling of just about in control that makes it such a great experience as a listener. If you are fans of the bands listed below – get this. If you are fans of extreme metal – get this. Essential stuff!!