When you become a staple in your sound and have proven yourself many times over to be capable of delivering high quality time and time again, what else is there for you to do? That’s a question that can poses quite a debacle for many veteran acts throughout the underground with stagnation and uninterest the worst-case scenario that we sadly see all too often enough. In the right hands, however, such a fate can be avoided if even the smallest of changes are made. It can be quite a tricky thing as many do not want to go against their core ideals, but the sharpest minds find a way. Wombbath has been a magnificent showcase of such prowess with their latest album a supreme testament to such.

This is a band that shouldn’t need an introduction of any sort, really. Having been a real presence in the past decade after its resurrection that defines what Swedish death metal can still become when it’s put into the right hands, Wombbath has been singular in its constant onslaughts from one album to the next, sometimes even putting out multiple works within the same twelve-month period. It has been four years since their last full-length outing, however, and it’s clear with even the most cursory glances at “Beyond the Abyss” that it should be more than obvious how busy these slayers have been. Pulling greatly from their last album, “Agma”, the very essence of this new work feels certifiably darker and nastier, yet it leans even harder into some of the more progressive elements of its predecessor with a symphonic presence driven by a haunting violin the real kick in the gnads I don’t think many of us realized we needed to experience. It quickly culminated to not just let “Beyond the Abyss” become a work lost in a sea of others channeling the old school of death metal, but, rather, show us that the march of progress is definitely a part of what Wombbath is. They’ve never once forgotten where they’ve come from with the riffs and attitude fitting on the shelves in the 90s but with a modern state of mind that is as satisfying as it is devastating to become lost within.

A real ripper of a work that’s always seeking new ways to deliver its particular breed of filth, Wombbath should be proud of what they’ve accomplished here. Never once losing sight of what they’ve always been but always seeking new horizons to conquer, “Beyond the Abyss” is all the proof one should ever need that Wombbath is in a class almost entirely all their own.

LISTEN to “Beyond the Abyss” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Wombbath on Facebook here.

FOLLOW Wombbath on Instagram here.