Phthisis - Embodiment of Decay

PHTHISIS - Embodiment of Decay (BRUTAL CAVE Productions - CD 2021)

Here's more death metal coming from the rotten crypts of US underground, this time under the name Phthisis. The band is from Colorado and "Embodiment of Decay" is their debut demo, released on cassette first and then on CD through Brutal Cave. The demo features 4 tracks of murky, cavernous death metal, which reeks of putrefaction and disgust, and has a great dose of more doomy stuff, which adds more crushing and obscure vibe to the music. Generally, it feels like Phthisis embraced a style, which on one hand can remind you old fucks like Asphyx on their very early releases or Incantation and those young beasts from acts such as Undergang or Anatomia in the slower parts, on the other. 

This is almost kind of neanderthal death metal, Phthisis doesn't show off with extra-terrestrial technical skills of guitar molestation (but music is not primitive either), growls are heavy, low and awful and the production is harsh, dirty and Phthisis sounds like from the catacomb rather than from a fancy studio. So, the music can be sloppy sometimes, especially in these slower parts like in the title song, which sooo much reminds me of Anatomia, with its slow paced, insanely heavy, creepy instrumentation and atmosphere. Surprisingly, this song sounds a lot different from such “Detestable Putrescence”, you could almost feel like they were from two different bands, as the latter is faster, more vicious and savage. But along with the mentioned title track, my favourite is “Rotting Vermin Flesh”, which also has more of that obscure doomy stuff. And I hope that Phthisis will go that direction in their future recordings. And as for "Embodiment of Decay", this is a great demo, which I enjoyed a lot, there’s a lot of great things from Phthisis in the future, I believe. 

Verdict: 75/100