At some point, you come to realize that a lot of underground death metal tends to sound the same whether you like it or not. That goes double for demos where all the sound quality feels the same, so you have to wonder what are bands going to do to try and make their already-visceral sound more interesting such that it doesn’t get lost in an ocean of other demos? Make even more fucking visceral and even more raw, of course!

A new death metal demo is far from anything that on its own is something that can draw in a crowd outside of the fact that most people don’t listen to demos on a regular basis, and it’s surely a trend that’s to continue with throngs of bands going to continue to do it with pride. But, it’s still important to try and differentiate yourself even at such an early stage as your debut demo, and, interestingly enough, Coagulate has actually done just that by heading further down the black hole of underground nastiness such that it was a real task for me to rip myself away from these four tracks. Everything about “The Art of Cryptosis” gives us the very core sound of what it means to be an underground death metal act to one of the highest degrees of nastiness gracing us as these misshapen riffs that grasp our psyche before slowly tearing us apart as Coagulate work their sick craft with shocking potency. Easily, this is some of the most mindless and unforgiving death metal that I’ve ever come across when scouring the pulsating mass of flesh that is the scene, and “The Art of Cryptosis” capitalizes on it at every fucking moment! This is an extremely far cry from any sort of material that can be considered fresh by any means, but there is no contest in saying that Coagulate has already set the bar for any future releases that they may put out in the future and I cannot help but feel the levels of depravity will only increase as their skill sharpens like a seasoned blade.

As one of the more excitingly devastating demos that I’ve come across, Coagulate has definitely grabbed my attention without having to even try and I can’t help but feel they’ll return quickly to deliver us something even more monumental. The tower of rotting flesh that is “The Art of Cryptosis” is far from anything to skip for any death metal fan that likes it as raw as it gets, and this is definitely up there.

LISTEN to “The Art of Cryptosis” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Coagulate on Facebook here.