Riding an old school riff attack straight into the 2020's, Atlanta GA's Occulsed hit Everlasting Spew with their sophomore album, Antegnosis. Hearkening back to Death Metal's vile, swampy, Tampa heyday, Occulsed focus on grime and a good time, blasting out some slimy, inspired fury. Metal is a wonderful style, open to many varied forms and approaches, celebrating those who want to experiment and push the envelope, as well as those who want to strengthen the bones of the genre-defining acts that inspired them to pick up their instruments. Occulsed consists of death dealers with over twenty years of experience, highlighting what it is that made them love the scene that made the genre a household name (well, in my house at least). Their modern old school death metal is perfect for both new and old fans alike, moving fast and furious, pummeling the listener with gloom and doom the entire time.
Much like classic entries in the early death metal scene, Antegnosis is fast, furious, and relatively brief. Why spend an hour overstating what can be efficiently said in less than thirty minutes? Occulsed's members have been in the game for quite a while and their chops can be seen throughout the entire album's run. Straight-forward and fairly flourish free (other than the much loved pinch harmonics), the nine tracks on Antegnosis bounce between furious sprints of riffing and pummeling and mid tempo death, keeping their approach interesting. The overall vile, swampy tone definitely sends the listener back 30 years to the Tampa scene but with a bit of Scandinavian distortion to thicken the mix. While there won't be anything new to the old school listeners, their passion, songwriting, and arrangement keep Occulsed from being just a one trick copy act. They make this inspiration their own, and Antegnosis would be a hit with that old crowd if it were released ages ago. Fortunately for us, we have it hot off the presses and can thrash and headbang about, hearing it happen in real time. For me, this hits home a few other ways, one being the track titles. While writing lackluster adventures for D&D in junior high, I would listen to death metal and create magic items or spells that sound a lot like songs on Antegnosis, such as "Haze of Morbid Slicing," "Cudgel of Antimatter," or "Formless Agony." Another personal note, the melody on "Necrognosis" has a very Fabio Frizzi vibe (I'd say from The Beyond) which brings me back to my discovery and love of Italian horror.
Occulsed's Antegnosis is a loving and inspired rebirth of old school, swampy death metal, without any modern flourishes making it feel less authentic. The darkness of it conjures up that fear of the unknown, the excitement of finding a new band based on the logo, album cover, and which shirts the guys on the back were wearing. The album may not be groundbreaking or pushing the genre to new heights, but it's a really excellent, every day listen type of record that will speak to old school heads, as well as new, getting everyone's fists in the air.
