‘Your heart ripped from its interior, your empathy a disguise, Replay the format, day after day, Instinct distorted, we grow weak from the smell of decay’ (Relive The Torment)

Deathfiend’s 2023 debut album, Beyond Life, was a bracing call back to the fundamentals that defined the first coming of death metal at the threshold of the 1990s.  The emphasis returned to song writing dynamics rooted in hardcore punk rather than more technical metal expressions, and a lyrical focus on the here and now as opposed to fantastical hells elsewhere.  And Deathfiend’s follow-up, Dark Rising, marshals these same elements to even more compelling heights.

The opener, Plague Race, sets the tone to perfection as ‘We are the humans, The plague race’ is roared above an ominously spartan riff.  What follows is a tightly orchestrated partnership of fierce buzzsaw riffage and a rhythm section that is thunderously resonant yet also fluidly detailed in its execution.  Doom-laden breakdowns, darkly melodic leads, and rolling acoustic flourishes are all deftly interwoven into this menacing mid-paced battery, as is a venomous guest vocal appearance from Barney Greenway of Napalm Death on Relive The Torment.

Meanwhile, the powerfully growled vocals conjure a bleakly allegorical tapestry of our plight spanning the relentless savaging of the environment, and the fermenting of an emerging authoritarian age born of unceasing economic exploitation.  From the groove fuelled title track with its utterly explosive opening to the bruising defiance of Watch Them Crawl, by way of the swaggering breakdown of Age Of Mistrust, Deathfiend conjure an atmosphere of unyielding darkness.