ASTRIFEROUS

Death metal has infected the entire world over the last forty years. Forged in flames emanating from an adolescent Jeff Becerra's brain back in the early '80s, the genre has become a touchstone for unholy underground rebellion in all corners of the globe. A familiar but largely unsung epicenter of skull-crushing heaviness, Costa Rica has a thriving extreme metal scene and an increasing number of certified heavyweights, ASTRIFEROUS among them. The second album from this San José quartet, "Atavistic Unraveling" may not be a purposeful statement on behalf of the whole Costa Rican scene, but it is a powerful glimpse of what the country has to offer nonetheless. Dark, destructive and horribly warped, this is doom-tinged, old-school brutality with a distinctive, deranged character.

One of the greatest things about the death metal scene in 2026 is how the majority of its heaviest hitters have their own, distinct personality. From FROZEN SOUL's icy majesty to the car lot fistfight vibes of SANGUISUGABOGG, this generation of bands are doing their best to avoid turning into one giant, overpopulated vat of mulch. ASTRIFEROUS can be added to the list of death metal bands with their own singular sound and aesthetic. Oddly psychedelic, despite its ferocity, "Atavistic Unraveling" is plainly an album constructed around riffs, but its overall atmosphere is more bizarre and hallucinatory than that. Take the opening "Carriers Of The Curse": a monstrous kicking open of the musical doors of perception, its perverse tempo shifts and mounting sense of horror ensure that the impact is more unnerving than cathartic. "The Floating Catacombs" repeats the conceit, but at a ferocious speed and with a swirling shroud of dissonance that adds a dose of nausea to the experience.

ASTRIFEROUS flex their understated tech-death chops on the grandiose and grotesque "Proto Embryo (The Third Tribulation)" , with churning, midtempo riffs that owe their offal to "Symphonies…"-era CARCASS, and bursts of feral, white-knuckle speed accompanied by truly wild guitar solos that sound like howling demonic spirits. Meanwhile, opulent finale "Resonance Cascade" is a spine-chilling, deathly doom metal deluge for the ages, and one of the most disgustingly heavy songs of the year so far. The combination of this band's twisted songwriting and the punishing precision of their ensemble performances is frequently breathtaking.

This is a clear step forward from ASTRIFEROUS's 2023 debut, "Pulsations From The Black Orb". That album was killer too, but there was a sense that the Costa Ricans had too many ideas and no clear plan for disseminating them. This time, "Atavistic Unraveling" flows with calculated cruelty, as each successive tune erupts and then morphs into ugly, alien shapes in a fiendish attempt to confound and terrify. There will be other death metal records released this year that hit comparable heights, but it seems very unlikely that anyone else will make an album like this. Pure death metal but riddled with wrongness. ASTRIFEROUS are a fucked-up force to be reckoned with.