It’s been on more than one occasion where I’ve described some of the best death metal being on the very floor of the seething underground of metal where the truly nastiest of bands make their home with it being all but impenetrable except to those willing to get lost. On that very floor, it’s only fitting that there would be some semblance of life where its only need for survival could be gained solely from the corpses of the unworthy and the unfortunate. As if taking care of those very spores and fungi, it’s with a surprisingly well-done gimmick that Mycelium holds dominion over those detritivores with death metal that is no less than uncompromising.

While I could sit here for a hot minute and pontificate on my feelings of the clear pun that the title has taken, I will, instead, resist for it’s literally every other facet of this album that should be given some form of attention for it accomplishes a good deal more than what many of us may expect despite such a title. In no short order, it’s with these nine pieces of raw, unyielding death metal that Mycelium has done a tremendous job at bringing the macabre appetites of flesh-devouring spores to life in a way that would be difficult enough to do for even a handful of tracks with nine of them without any of them being worthy of a skip is enough to really keep and hold the attention. You would think a mushroom-themed act would be more fitting for a doom act but the whole of “Scream Bloody Spore” turns such an expectation right on its head without compromising the heaviness potential as we see it in a form that literally peels raw meat off bone rather than a slow death that doom would bring forth, even if that would also be immensely fitting. Throw on top of all that vicious riffs and an attitude made to consume all in its path without any form of let-up whatsoever, and you’re left with a creation that would immediately be a bore in lesser hands but it’s virtually instantly that Mycelium proves to be an act to turn fungi into potential gold.

Gimmicks are slowly becoming more and more of a thing for one reason or another as the world of metal continues to grow every year, but it’s not nearly often enough that we can get one that works on any level with it always being a surprise to see any work no matter how questionable the theme may be. Mycelium certainly earned my doubt before even hearing a single note, but it’s right unto the the very end that “Scream Bloody Spore” has more than enough reasons for us to keep coming back to its garden of decomposition where, truly, the spore is king.

LISTEN to “Scream Bloody Spore” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Mycelium on Facebook here.