Undeath – It’s Time…To Rise From The Grave
Release Date: 22nd April 2022
Label: Prosthetic Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Skeletal Remains.
Review By: Eric Wilt
I first became aware of Undeath in 2019 with their four song EP Sentient Autolysis. The EP was filled with gargantuan riffs and an old school vibe, and I was surprised to learn that the band wasn’t made up of seasoned veterans joining forces to pay homage to their roots. I was even more surprised to find that Undeath had only been on the scene for about a year when the EP came out, but after a few spins of that record, I was left with no doubt that Undeath was a band destined for big things. Three years later, they are releasing their second full length on Prosthetic Records entitled It’s Time…To Rise from the Grave, and the boys from Rochester are making good on the promise they showed on Sentient Autolysis and their first full length for Prosthetic Records, Lesions of a Different Kind. In 2022, the band is composed of vocalist Alexander Jones, guitarists Kyle Beam and Jared Welch, bassist Tommy Wall, and drummer Matt Browning, and together they have created a masterpiece of blood-soaked death metal.
“Fiend for Corpses” starts things off with a nod of the decapitated head to “Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead,” leaving no doubt where their allegiance lies. The riff is filled with beefy trills similar to those in the aforementioned classic off of The Bleeding by Cannibal Corpse. Those who have followed Undeath since the beginning may notice that this song follows a more typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus format than what was typical of their earlier songs. This was a conscious decision on the part of Undeath and is utilized consistently throughout the whole album. This reliance on the tried-and-true a-b-a-b song structure has made their already tasty songs even more palatable, and the choruses of these songs bore their way into your skull in a way that a more free-form song does not. The title track and “Necrobionics” also have memorable choruses that will become fan favorites at live shows.
There’s a video that went viral last year, of a man leaning against a stage drinking a beer in the middle of a band’s set. A person from the pit goes by with arms flailing and catches the man trying to enjoy a cold one in the face with a fist and an elbow. In this case, Undeath is throwing haymakers in the pit and the listener is getting pummelled by song after song. There isn’t any filler on It’s Time…To Rise from the Grave, so whether it’s bangers like Defiled Again and Funeral Within or ragers like Enhancing the Dead and Bone Wrought, Undeath keeps the heads banging and the crypts rocking. Even the names of the songs are bound to induce nightmares in the uninitiated. Songs like Head Splattered in Seven Ways and Human Chandelier leave no doubt that Undeath comes to bust skulls.
It’s only been four years since Undeath burst onto the death metal scene, but their music is as good as any that is being made today. Lesions of a Different Kind went a long way in getting their name out, and It’s Time…To Rise from the Grave is going to rocket them to the top of the death metal charts.
(5 / 5)
