apanthropy

Cemetery Reign
Confined to Time
Carbonized Records
To Be Released: February 26th, 2026

Rating: 8/10

“Cemetery Reign is post-apocalyptic death metal. The age of industrialization is over, and the return to true darkness and audio foulness has emerged once again, paying homages to the old gods, and worshipping through the medium of riff and battery. Confined to Time is a constant beatdown of old-school proportions that should be acknowledged by those who worship the foundational bands in the American scene, as well as those in the very early Austrian and Scandinavian scenes.”

–
1 – Escape Survival
2 – Pendulum Clock
3 – Spiral Eyes
4 – Grave Depression
5 – Despised by Fire
6 – Infernal Punishment
7 – Captive in a Coffin
8 – Curse of Despair
–

The death metal multi-instrumentalist generally faces a harsher uphill battle than those in the black metal realm. Black metal has a spiritual core that can be adapted and adopted to many variations, with an enormous number of sonic routes to take to one’s ultimate listening experience. With death metal, that option is severely restricted in a sense that death metal has more of a substantiated tonal core, something more physically prominent, and a degree of intensity generally not found in black metal.

Cemetery Reign is the putrid offspring of David McMaster, who also plays in Predatory Light, Street Tombs, and Superstition, raining pulverizing mid-tempo death metal upon the masses. McMaster is ultimately responsible for every bit of instrumentation found on the debut release, Confined to Time, 8 face-smashing cuts clocking in at 34 minutes of brutal material, to be released February 26th, 2026, through Carbonized Records. In essence, the record was a byproduct of the Covid-19 lockdown, in which there was plenty of time to write and record riffs, fortified in the security of the expanse of northern New Mexico. While the country descended into the muck and shit of moral, political, and social retardation, Confined to Time slowly came into genesis from an abyss of riffs, percussive battery, and strangulated gutturals. The end result is a hammer strike to the listener’s brain, a barrage of grinding phrases chained into perfect, suffocating compositions, driven by rich tonality, completely accentuating production, and a true grasp on the foundations of American death metal.

This isn’t a whirlwind firestorm of blasts and sweeps, this is a burned effigy to the old gods; Obituary, Autopsy, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, and the many others. When tone, composition, and delivery came down to raw sonic power and not flashy technique-driven riffs-per-minute approaches. Cemetery Reign achieves something simple on the surface but deeply complex within the deep inner workings of the music. Mid-tempo death metal must be engaging, it must be driving, and it must be sonically prominent to the point of being demanding. It will generally fail without these characteristics, lost to the abandonment of boredom, tedium, and listener fatigue. Confined to Time ticks every positive and dodges every negative. The compositions are strong, the tempo and fluidity are engaging, and the tone and production is wide enough to sound immense and forceful but restrictive still to produce sensations of suffocation and obstruction.

‘Escape Survival’ is a quick demonstration of what the listener is in for. Riff-forward composing merged with accenting drums that propel the arrangement through its destructive course, guttural vocals spit forth with malice and malcontent. Lasting under 2 minutes but showing off the wonderful guitar tone and dynamic characteristics that are soon to unfold throughout the remaining tracks.

One could possibly look at ‘Pendulum Clock’ as the first formal dose of how McMaster executes his material on a longer course. Grinding palm-muted tremolo possesses a syrupy quality, with great grit and bite in the middle frequencies. Not bassy by any means, but meticulous and sharp throughout the remaining frequencies. Thrashy d-beat rhythms provide backdrop for a series of cutting riffs with angular and slicing characters, stacked gutturals rage a narrative above the blood-boiling carnage, layered riff work combines roaring sustained chords with mysterious melodies intertwined.

The track terminates into the panicked immediacy of ‘Spiral Eyes,’ dominated by rolling fills and riffs building to a peak in its early phrases. Grinding mid-tempo hell takes over, layering ringing chords to macabre melody, whammy bar screams precursor bridges of breakdown worthy riff work, designed to inspire strangers into violence against one another. Everything is geared for physical contact, this is music designed to inflict harm in its purest form, whether it be involuntary headbanging or bodies slamming against bodies. These are mosh-ready phrases laced with puked vocals and sinister atmosphere.

Machete hacks such as ‘Despised by Fire’ and ‘Infernal Punishment’ continue to unleash carnage through barrages of riffs and torrential fluidity that make each transition violent and seamless. The pairing of riff to rhythm in ‘Despised by Fire’ creates some of the finer moments on Confined to Time, while ‘Infernal Punishment’ brings in perhaps some of the heaviest content on the record, with slamming elements and driving rhythms in abundance.

‘Captive in a Coffin’ and ‘Curse of Despair’ hold wellsprings of riffing excellence, keeping the record engaging deep into the closing moments, providing no relief and no resolution to the constant twisted tension induced. The circle closes and the listeners have been kinetically battered across just over half an hour of material. Hit the start button again and play it over. There are no weak moments on Confined to Time, and with its short running time, this should be engaging enough for every death metal fan to spin a few times over.

Cemetery Reign is post-apocalyptic death metal. The age of industrialization is over, and the return to true darkness and audio foulness has emerged once again, paying homages to the old gods, and worshipping through the medium of riff and battery. Confined to Time is a constant beatdown of old-school proportions that should be acknowledged by those who worship the foundational bands in the American scene, as well as those in the very early Austrian and Scandinavian scenes. Cemetery Reign and Confined to Time represents when human comfort is violently ripped away, leaving nothing but a short, bleak, miserable existence where one is under constant strain and anxiety. A worthy listening experience for death metal enthusiasts across the spectrum.