sashavonkarl74
The guttural cave-deep vocals typical for doom-death from Finland, HM-2 overdose à la Dismember and amazing guitar work... all this and more is HETEROPSY from Japan! Glad I came across this a while ago and kept it in my wish-list patiently awaiting for release day! What a banger of an album this is! If the solo in the Intro doesn't melt your face already, just dare waiting for the 2nd track :))
Favorite track: Pandemonium Alter.
HaroldAllnut
"Memento Mori" thrashes and then finally limps towards its terminus like a wounded predator. Excellent death-doom with some strikingly melodic moments.
Favorite track: Memento Mori.
Formed in 2020, Japan's Heteropsy are a quartet where two members do double-time in Frostvore. But whereas that band plays pure Swedish-style death metal, in Heteropsy do they play "mourning death metal" - or, put another way, doom-death metal using a Boss HM-2 pedal with all knobs on MAX. A band of true maniacs playing music for other true maniacs, they state that their influences are "sometimes" Dismember, Autopsy, Rippikoulu, Switzerland's Sadness, and Sweden's Naglfar: "We mixed our favorite death metal sounds, simmered them, sharpened them, stripped them bare, and then converted them into SAMURAI SWORD."
Now, after four EPs and a split since their formation, Heteropsy make their full-length debut with Embalming. Indeed, it's not difficult to hear their laid-bare-for-all-to-see mix of old-school Swedish death, melancholic vibes, and soulful edge; the album is first and foremost a DEATH METAL one before a doom one. But with "vague madness and sadness," Heteropsy crush and contort with a strangely unsettling and yet somehow addicting sort of magick, sounding like a lost relic of teenage Scandinavian metalheads blowing their minds circa 1995. Such is probably unsurprising for those well versed in how the Japanese locate a largely Western idiom, study it inside and out, and then process it - weirder and wilder than imaginable, and yet still slavishly reverent - emerging with something that's both a love-letter to the form and a postmodern commentary on it. Or, you could simply submerge thyself in the muck of Embalming and allow the viscous fluids to rancidly wipe away such fancy words. Solemn and strange, Heteropsy make a grand entrance onto the world stage...
credits
released October 31, 2025
HETEROPSY:
Koki Fukushima (Vocals/Guitars)
Shigenori Tamura (Drums)
Kota Maruyama (Guitars)
Hiroki Sato (Bass)
the second album from spectral voice is majorly a great success to there abilities. it opens up new boundaries that they did not cross in there eroded corridors of unbeing in my opinion. the way that this album roles is complete labyrinthine morphology. jensen5g
Man, this is some flat out foul death doom metal. Crushingly heavy and intimidating. The whole album oozes a thick and murky atmosphere that will leave you feeling hypoxic and catatonic. Do what you can to brace yourself against this torrent of sludge and slime. 8/10 RJ
A new compilation series featuring cat-loving metal bands from every state donating their tracks for local animal welfare organizations. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 12, 2018
Derrick manages to bring a bit of his Dream Unending urges into Tomb Mold, and with great effect. Every track on this is a winner, but "Will of Whispers" feels the most forward-thinking, mixing melody with heaviness and a near-fusion level of musicianship. My favourite modern death metal album. jcridford