Words - Fletch
Release date - 4th Oct 24
Label - Prosthetic
When we had the honor of reviewing Undeath’s sophomore album ‘It’s Time… To Rise from the Grave’ in 2022, we summarized that it gave them a platform from which they could climb as high as any of death metal’s elder gods. Two years later, and with their third full length in the bag, it appears that the Rochester outfit have no intention of slowing down their ascendancy to the corpse-pile summit, as they unleash another hulking slab of gore filled bangers upon us all.
With previous efforts the band managed to (implausibly) make death metal sound anthemic, and this is a trajectory they have continued with ‘More Insane’, an album title that obviously sets up expectations from the get-go - and whilst it doesn’t veer off in as many weird new directions as we might be lead to believe, Undeath do display a more technical approach to songwriting, incorporating more melodic tendencies in places which manage to keep things fresh.
Opening track ‘Dead From Beyond’ starts proceedings with a military drum beat, preparing you for battle before hitting you with a groove laden riff which is unmistakably Undeath. Third track ‘Brandishing The Blade’ is the first real detour in sound on the album, with a bit of variation in the riffing, before the band lurch you straight into ‘Disputatious Malignancy’, which grabs you by the throat and squeezes like a riff-constructed vice grip. Whilst these are potential album highlights, the truth is that there is no real filler here at all.
One key point that is absolutely crucial to the success of this record is the production job. Every track sounds absolutely huge and in your face which is the perfect move to accompany the more melodic and technical chops on display. Coupled with the fact that the vocals in Undeath are more discipherable than a lot of their contemporaries, this really helps the anthemic feel that they have managed to craft. The band have said previously that they are always trying to one up themselves and in most respects, you have to say mission accomplished here.
With their first two records, Undeath showed why they are at the forefront of a death metal movement which has seen a deluge of future classics from new bands and scene veterans alike. Now with their third offering they have built from the solid death metal foundations previously laid to explore their sound further, all the while keeping those gruesome, tentacley extreme metal roots front and center. ‘More Insane’ absolutely flies by and will leave you wanting to spin it again and again and will rightly be hailed not just as one of the year's best death metal albums, but one of 2024’s best metal albums full stop.
9/10.