Heteropsy - Embalming

Across its 44 minutes, Embalming swings between suffocating doom passages and sudden bursts of melodic clarity. After the album intro, “Pandemonium Altar” sets the tone immediately with classic Stockholm grit welded to eerie melodic phrasing that recalls Afflicted or God Macabre, but delivered with a distinctly Japanese sense of precision and theatricality. “The Sodomizer” grinds forward with brutish weight, its riffs staggering under the distortion’s pressure, while “Memento Mori” finds the band pushing toward cinematic melancholy without sacrificing bite. By the time closer “Old Friends” lurches through its ten minute death march, the listener is left drained, unsure whether they’ve endured ritual mourning or possession.

What elevates Embalming is its command of contrast. The band moves from towering heaviness to near fragile moments of atmosphere without losing coherence. The production remains deliberately raw, each riff feels sculpted and every drum hit placed with intention. Rather than mimic Sweden’s golden era, Heteropsy dissect it, study its anatomy, then reassemble the corpse into something leaner and more disturbing.

It’s an album that bridges reverence and reinvention, merging the frozen melancholy of early ’90s death metal with the strange pathos that only Japan’s underground seems capable of invoking. Embalming is not here for nostalgia sake, it’s here solely for resurrection through decay.

8/10

Words by @FuegoCasa

In collaboration with @headbangersaustralia 🤘🏾

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