True legends never die, especially in death metal.
Having already reached unholy nirvana by their third album, in 2017, Spawn of Possession was put to rest. But like an especially pungent spore, the seeds of those most accursed influencers have been festering in their hallowed crypt, waiting to come alive and haunt the earth once again.
Such is the sordid backstory behind Retromorphosis. Jonas Bryssling and his Spawn of Possession bandmates have once again joined forces with ex-Obscura and Necrophagist guitarist Christian Muenzner. Only now, their proven chemistry explodes with even more deadly proficiency. They’ve added former Decrepit Birth drummer KC Howard to the equation, along with a few new, old-school bells and whistles.
With their first album, Retromorphosis emerge with the missing link in tech-death’s evolutionary chain. Psalmus Mortis is almost a decade in the making, but its lead single “Vanished” shows that this band of fearsome players loom over metalheads’ imaginations larger than ever.
Watch the haunting visualizer for “Vanished”.
Psalmus Mortis comes out February 21 on Season of Mist.
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Spawn of Possession had the final nail hammered into its coffin nearly a decade ago, but time has only accelerated the mutation of Retromorphosis. The first offering from Psalmus Mortis comes screaming out of the shadows before quickly settling in to a bone-crunching riff that reeks of the old school. “I prefer my death metal to sound ugly and mean”, Bryssling says with a satisfied grin. “Vanished” was one of the first songs that Bryssling wrote after he hopped back on the death metal songwriting minotaur, but the band continued to tinker with album’s lead single after the other eight tracks were smashed into shape.
“There was no hesitation”, Bryssling says about respawning with his old bandmates as Retromorphosis. With “Vanished”, it’s not hard to see why. Muenzner’s freakishly fast solos are not for the squeamish. At one point, Casperon’s bass line breaks into a ghoulish bounce, whisking the songs cosmic body horror into the light. “Fading flesh, his skin turning translucent“, Röndum roars with laughter. All of the tales on Psalmus Mortis will test your sanity, though this song officially opens the album with a tale that reads like a twisted mirror image of Dorian Gray.
“I don’t have to tell them much”, Bryssling continues. “They know how it’s done”.
So does their new drummer. “Everyone knows KC Howard is an insane talent”, Bryssling says. Howard first etched his mark on the underground as the blistering heartbeat of Decrepit Birth. His non-stop pounding is the radioactive ooze that feeds Retromorphosis’ frenzied nucleus. Even when “Vanished” slows to a crawl, his cymbal crashes and thunderous fills spell doom.
But Howard isn’t the only new blood injected into Retromorphosis. Psalmus Mortis was produced by Magnus Sedenberg, who’s been their Swedish engineer du jour dating back to SoP’s first two demos. But while the band opted for more raw production, they fleshed out their technical arsenal with some unusual instruments of torture. Amidst all its unflinching punishment, “Vanished” is backlit by a ghostly choir and synths that glow like a portal into hell.
“We had rules in Spawn of Possession”, Bryssling explains when asked what separates Retromorphosis from their first mutation. “Everything had to always be so intense. Retromorphosis is more free. Psalmus Mortis can be eerie, doomy, or even quite simple”.
With “Vanished”, one of the great legends of modern death metal reveal their gloriously grotesque new form.
The visualizer for “Vanished” was created by Riivata Visuals.
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