apanthropy

Monstrosity
Screams from Beneath the Surface
Metal Blade Records
To Be Released: March 13th, 2026

Rating: 8.5/10

“While stark, violent, and heavy, there are moments of atmospheric airiness tinged with suffocating shades of darkness, moments of groove and rhythm-centric brutality, and crisp, razor-sharp lead work interlaced through each song. Riff structures are surprisingly animated and drawn-out, while working within the confines of relatively traditional song structures, leading to a unique combination of progressiveness and frontal caveman violence.”

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1 – Banished to the Skies
2 – The Colossal Rage
3 – The Atrophied
4 – Spiral
5 – Fortunes Engraved in Blood
6 – Vapors
7 – The Thorns
8 – Blood Works
9 – The Dark Aura
10 – Veil of Disillusion
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Monstrosity stand as one of the finest vanguards of the early American death metal scene, appearing during the intense expansion of the genre between 1988 and 1992, finding home in the volatile and vicious Florida scene, the launch point of many legendary extreme metal bands. Striking first in 1990 with the Horror Infinity demo, this tape would fire up a powerful run of albums for the band throughout the 1990s, including 1992’s Imperial Doom, 1996’s Millennium, and 1999’s In Dark Purity. Perhaps best known for featuring the likes of George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher on vocals for the first two records, Monstrosity forged an identity built on technical precision and sheer brutality, earning themselves a reputation for consistent high-quality releases.

March 13th, 2026, marks the launch of Screams from Beneath the Surface, the seventh and newest full-length from Monstrosity, to be issued through the esteemed Metal Blade Records. The band’s output has been slowing down since 2007, but the band has never ceased evolving, and their newest effort is perhaps the sonic destination that the band has been attempting to reach. While stark, violent, and heavy, there are moments of atmospheric airiness tinged with suffocating shades of darkness, moments of groove and rhythm-centric brutality, and crisp, razor-sharp lead work interlaced through each song. Riff structures are surprisingly animated and drawn-out, while working within the confines of relatively traditional song structures, leading to a unique combination of progressiveness and frontal caveman violence. Featuring the veteran rhythm section of Mark van Erp on bass and Lee Harrison on drums, the aspect of rhythm – be it transitions, bridges, verses, or choruses – is one that takes center stage, in the same sense it would for early foundational death metal bands such as Suffocation and Internal Bleeding.

‘Banished to the Skies’ opens the album, and the production quality immediately stands out. Powerful and booming lows, intense and crunchy sustained chords, articulated and annunciated tremolo, punchy bass guitar, and cataclysmic vocals that roar like hellfire. The song itself is a demonstration of murderous restraint, possessing a slower tempo and a more atmospheric composition that is surprisingly melodic. Driven largely by a verse motif of sharp and angular tremolo stabs, the riff crafting is noticeably open, allowing the bass to shine through and really pushing the slower vocal patterns into the forefront. The pre-bridge leadwork is scalpel-like sharpness in action. This is vocalist Ed Webb’s debutand his presence is huge, bestial, with such a naturally deep guttural without the corny gimmicky bullshit.

Moving past the opening track, ‘The Colossal Rage’ shifts gears and the band move into a much faster, much more violent method of delivery. The Monstrosity of old shines through here, and the riff construction of Matt Barnes and Justin Walker is engaging, fluid, and heavy in character. Periods of machine-gun blast beats light up the track and extended sessions of pure shredding lead work possess the song into a fevered assault.

Deeper into the meat of the record lay tracks such as ‘Vapors,’ which takes the barbaric rhythmic violence of the old Monstrosity and sadistically smashes it into the new progressive-minded abomination, creating a perfect storm of palm-muted chaos and flesh-blistering soloing. This is the classic Floridian death metal dragged into the modern day, a beast amongst common man, incompatible with norms of convention, geared strictly for death and destruction. This is a track that begs to be played live, possessing nothing but pure tonal characteristics that would change over well from studio to stage environment.

Moving towards the end of the record, the listener faces ‘The Dark Aura,’ a doomier, slower, crawling number that exudes putrid ambience in the vein of forefathers Autopsy. The band stretches their creative legs here, employing unorthodox tonality and textures through both riff and added synth. Extended screaming lead work bridges the center of the track, feeding into another extended session of crushing atmospheric death.

‘Veil of Disillusion’ closes out the record, ending in the opposite way it started, bringing a final push of crushing and oppressive hell to the listener, invoking the speed, rhythm, and fury of the old beast of the 1990s. The tremolo work here, the guitar theatrics in general, coupled with the relentless percussion is an exhibition of raw stamina. The intensity and claustrophobic execution show the band possesses a flawless ability to write demanding and powerful material, deep into the listening experience, leaving very few points of refuge for the listener throughout the record.

Overall, Monstrosity deliver a worthy return to form, armed with skillful execution, attention-snaring riff crafting, and powerfully dynamic production. Despite the line-up changes that have come and gone for the band, the rhythmic soul is still intact and despite the frequent changes, this still feels like the Monstrosity of old. It’s great to see a band of this caliber, with this level of history, still active and recording in 2026, and it marks one of the most solid death metal records of the late winter season.

Label: Metal Blade Records
Band: Monstrosity

AJK