Out of the vast reaches of the underground, it truly does feel as though there is never going to be a shortage of rising acts that demand to take note of. As the years go on and the very population of the underground grows at a staggering and impressive rate with a fitting increase in high-quality performances, and we could sit here and talk for days on end about bands that are proof of that very concept. A constant in the up-and-coming need-to-know name throughout the years for well over ten years now has been Father Befouled with their particular brand of death metal far from anything to scoff at with their forthcoming fifth full-length album up for the debate of taking the crown as the band’s best yet.

If the very reputation and legacy of Father Befouled up to this point is the sort of thing that eludes you then I cannot help but provide two solutions to you for such a wild predicament: either (1) stop what you’re doing now and investigate as much of the discography from Father Befouled that you can get your hands on, and/or (2) make sure that listening to “Crowned in Veneficum” is at the very top of your to-do list the moment in lands upon this earth. Time has been immensely kind to this band in such a way that feels almost unbelievable when looking at where this band started off no matter how wondrous it was with the very reality of “Crowned in Veneficum” being a devastating creation that not only holds nothing back in any ounce but offers to us yet another performance from Father Befouled that shows us both how adept this band is at their craft and how they’re still honing it to somehow make it better and better. Without exception, the very whole of this record makes for a truly uncompromising experience that’s practically dripping with an unparalleled sense of heaviness that is all but pervasive for the very whole of these nine tracks. And yet, with it’s the arrival of this opus of undeath that it’s all to the point that it’s very tempting to say this is the embodiment of underground death metal that we could have only ever hoped for with the consistency, power, and excellence of Father Befouled doing them every favor in such a regard with every inch of “Crowned in Veneficum” all but supremely tantalizing from its instrumental devastation to its venomous riffage to its undeniable legacy that is simply becoming all the more grandiose year after year, album after album, and victim after victim.

This has definitely got to be one of those bands that has more than enough reputation to cause real waves across the underground every time they release a new effort, but it’s somehow that they seemed to have avoided that god-tier recognition from the whole of the scene at large, yet the gift of time has been all but bountiful to Father Befouled with more acolytes joining their cult with every new album as if to rectify such a grievous mistake. With the release of “Crowned in Veneficum”, that trend, fortunately, seems to be staying the course to do such a performance more than enough justice.

“Crowned in Veneficum” releases on March 25th via Everlasting Spew Records!

LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Crowned in Veneficum” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Father Befouled on Facebook here.