Album review: Undeath – More Insane

Though not quite as banner a year for death metal as 1991, 2024 has proven a markedly fecund one, nevertheless. Not least in the new(er) blood continuing to flow nicely through the veins of the genre’s corpse, thanks to cracking albums from the likes of Gatecreeper, 200 Stab Wounds and Blood Incantation, all celebrant in their roots, while striking out on their own individual paths.

You can add More Insane to that list as well. The third album from Rochester, New York sickos Undeath continues their killing spree in devastating fashion. Picking up where 2022’s It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave left off, they chonk and blast their way through everything, wild-eyed in their enthusiasm and adrenalised in their energy. The title-track, the squidgy Disputatious Malignancy and the unambiguous Brandish The Blade are all charged-up death that revs its engine cockily in the direction of old timers like Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation, but there’s a streak of something approaching joyous personality at play that makes Undeath far more than just a very good bunch of fans with guitars.

Cramped Caskets (Necrology) works with groove, punchy bits and something approaching big choruses that are built for festivals, while Wailing Cadavers is a wall of death waiting to happen, and the amazingly-titled Disattachment Of A Prophylactic In The Brain (just… think about that) experiments with a manky melody, like Iron Maiden gone dead. Through it all, they sound like they’re having an absolute riot.

That Undeath manage to carve a trench for themselves and stamp their personality on things while also holding down deep roots and an obsession with this stuff is a mark of their greatness. Another thread to the new wave of death metal’s ever-strengthening rope.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Cannibal Corpse, 200 Stab Wounds, Celestial Sanctuary

More Insane is out now via Prosthetic