Album Review: Undeath - More Insane
Reviewed by Sam Jones
One band that will immediately interest me upon the news of releasing a upcoming record is Undeath. Hailing out of New York, United States, Undeath got started in 2018 and shot to almost instant hype with their first Demo a year later, which was soon followed by their Sentient Autolysis Demo. A Split followed suit in 2019 alongside Devoid Of Thought as well as a Compilation. But 2020 would turn out to be the band’s breakout year, for not only would they release a Live Album, but Undeath would at last release their long awaited full length album: Lesions Of A Different Kind. That was a record I personally loved and still love to this day and was happily surprised to learn of the band’s second record come its 2022 release: Its Time… To Rise From The Grave. In that time Undeath have seen multiple tours spanning numerous nations and crossing the Atlantic on more than one occasion and now, another two years later, the band are back for their third record simply titled More Insane. Now onto their third album through Prosthetic Records, Undeath are seeking to hit the mark once more come More Insane’s release date of October 4th. The band have enjoyed a pretty stable lineup throughout the years albeit one or two minor changes now and again, so my hopes for the record are high but only because of Undeath’s established reputation for quality death metal.
The mix is really interesting if you ask me. Undeath are a death metal band so you’d expect everything from the riffs to the drums and the vocals, but what you won’t be anticipating just how compact More Insane feels. When the band are playing, everything feels so tightly knit that it’s impossible to unravel one element from the other; I suppose it speaks volumes towards how close the band have become and how refined their performances are that they can now put on record the very sensibility they showcase live: that idea of playing so finely tuned with another that you can’t cohesively remove one member’s performance from the next. There really feels to be no ego at play throughout Undeath as the band clearly come together to make this record not only a success for the audience but also for themselves as any album is by no means something easy to pull off. Since it’s been applied with this compact nicety the record doesn’t go out of its way to bludgeon you either, the riffs and drums come at you with all the aggression Undeath are regarded for but the band ensured More Insane could still be a pretty easy experience to digest.
It’s only by listening to More Insane that I’ve come to realise how unique Undeath’s riffs really are; sure, the band do deliver the usual cinderblock densities down upon you with all the tone that modern production values may impart, but their riffs are surpassingly malleable in the sense that they don’t merely conform to one sound alone. It’s never just the bludgeoning impact alone, they can sneak in more left-field licks and technical playing, or at the very least that’s what More Insane has been propagating. It certainly shows a band that’s looking not to become easily pigeonholed as another cookie cutter extreme metal act, and to genuinely offer something of audible worth that splits them from the crowd. Throughout any track on record herein the guitar work is never exacting massive chords on their own for there is always something else thrown in, or hidden away in the background to keep their songwriting incessantly engaging. The band play quickly but just as quick is their ability to throw you just enough off balance that you can’t predict what’s to come next. But then the band aren’t afraid to let their hardcore style bleed into their songwriting either, for when they slow their pacing down you get these sweeping sequences that are as colossal as they are grooving which are bound to set pits ablaze when this material is performed live.
One of Undeath’s most prominent features if you ask me personally are the vocals, and now upon their third album it’s easy to see why that is. Frontman Alexander Jones has shot through the ranks to become one of newest, burgeoning stars of modern death metal and his uniquely blunt vocals are the reason for it. When he performs you not only receive all the bile and malignant timbre his cords are capable of producing, but also his ability to continuously raise and lower his vocal pitch on a whim pending on what the vocal tracks need in the moment. It again rears those hardcore tendencies again, as the blood keeps moving and the peculiar rhythms he manages to invoke throughout his deliveries. Listen attentively and you’ll find his delivery is never one-note nor does he utilise just a single rate of vocal performance. His performance could slow down, speed up, his cadence can alter easily etc. The vocals feel as dynamic as they’re out across as because they honestly like any other instrument on record, there to be employed as the musician in question sees fit.
I believe one reason why this album feels so compactly put together is because the drums, though mighty and striking with clenched fists at every turn, are lower in the mix than the rest of the album. That’s not to say the drums lack presence within the mix because you’re never at risk losing the drums as a viable force but they’re definitely not out for blood. Whilst the drums provide all the blast beats and bass you could want out of Undeath as we know full well they’re happy to give us, it’s as if the drums have been sealed within an anechoic chamber and all the residual resonance that the drums would otherwise harbour has been shut away to leave only the primary impact of each drum on the kit. As a result, even as the band’s tempo increases and the adrenaline keeps climbing their drums never reach any point of overwhelming us or any other aspect of the instrumentation. It’s easily the most streamlined sounding album Undeath have yet crafted, and absolutely their most mature work to date.
In conclusion, More Insane is easily Undeath’s most professional work of death metal to date. It’s like they took everything they knew was great about their last two albums and threw it under a steamroller, flattening and ironing out everything that could be deemed unnecessary or fatuous so this record exists for what it is. More Insane is a clear demonstration of a band growing up as many of their younger, more immature niceties have been stripped away only for the band to get right to the point for what their songwriting is all about: punching yet technically written death metal that has plenty of surprises in store with riffs that keep you on the edge at all times. Undeath don’t necessarily do anything new at this point in their career but More Insane really does show itself as a benchmark that the band will likely pit themselves against since it does feel like a culmination of everything they’ve yet done on record. It’s also a reminder as to why their sound has become so adorned by legions of fans for its not merely a death metal sound alone but it does waltz with a hardcore style at times which keeps their songwriting refreshing. I think this record is going to land big with both the band and their fanbase and I’m very excited to see the success that will no doubt play out accordingly because of the band’s efforts within. Personally, Undeath are onto their third winner on the run and they’re only going up in the world.
