After years of silence, a new force has emerged from the depths of death metal’s unholy crypt. RETROMORPHOSIS, a band born from the legacy of SPAWN OF POSSESSION, is set to unleash their debut album, “Psalmus Mortis”, a mind-bending descent into technical death metal’s most ferocious and intricate territories.
Founded in 2020, RETROMORPHOSIS is the brainchild of Jonas Bryssling, one of the original masterminds behind SPAWN OF POSSESSION. With a vision of crafting something unbound by the constraints of his former band, Bryssling recruited familiar allies – vocalist Dennis Röndum and bassist Erlend Caspersen – to help shape this new entity. Rounding out the lineup is Christian Muenzner, whose shredding prowess has already been immortalized on NECROPHAGIST’s “Epitaph” and OBSCURA’s “Cosmogenesis”, and KC Howard (ex-DECREPIT BIRTH) on drums, delivering relentless percussive devastation.
While deeply rooted in the ferocity of early 2000s technical death metal, “Psalmus Mortis” pushes beyond expectations. The album blurs the lines between calculated brutality and eerie, atmospheric horror, introducing haunting orchestral elements, ominous synth textures, and gothic choral arrangements. Songs like “The Tree” weave dystopian narratives over alien soundscapes, while “Never to Awake” plunges into ’90s death metal rawness, soaked in sludgy distortion and unrelenting speed.
“We had rules in SPAWN OF POSSESSION,” Bryssling explains. “Everything always had to be so intense. ‘Psalmus Mortis’ is intense too, but it can also be eerie or even quite simple.” Yet, simplicity is relative – tracks like “Machine”, a nine-minute death metal behemoth, shift through multiple tempo changes, savage down-picked chugging, and dizzying blast beats, proving that RETROMORPHOSIS thrive in controlled chaos.
Recorded over the summer of 2023 and produced by Magnus Sedenberg – who previously worked with SPAWN OF POSSESSION on their early demos – “Psalmus Mortis” strips away the excessive polish of modern production, opting for an organic, bone-crushing sound. Röndum’s vocals chew through syllables like a meat grinder, while Caspersen’s bass injects eerie, unpredictable movement into each track. Muenzner’s solos, described as “a poor unsuspecting soul being dragged into the shadows”, elevate the album’s themes of cosmic horror and madness.
With “Psalmus Mortis”, RETROMORPHOSIS doesn’t just resurrect the spirit of their past – they evolve it. This is technical death metal reborn, more feral, unpredictable, and fearsome than ever before.
Prepare for a rebirth of brutal extremity – “Psalmus Mortis” is the missing link in death metal’s evolutionary chain. “Psalmus Mortis” will be released on February 21, 2025 via Season Of Mist.
