apanthropy

Egregore
It Echoes in the Wild
20 Buck Spin
To Be Released: March 20th, 2026

Rating: 8.5/10

“One could use names like StarGazer, Mortuary Drape, or The Chasm to try and nail down the tonality employed by Egregore, but that’s simplifying far too much. All of the prior mentioned bands stand alone in terms of creative output, carving their own lanes and their own identities, no idol or hero worship on their ends, which is the destiny Egregore are creating for themselves.”

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1 – Cast Adrift
2 – Voice on the West Wind
3 – Stair into the Vortex
4 – Craven Acts of Desperate Men
5 – From the Yawning Crevasse Shrieks a Transmorphic Gale
6 – Corsairs of the Daath Gulf
7 – Nightmare Cartographer
8 – Six Doors Guard the Original Knowledges
9 – Servants of the Second Death
10 – It Echoes in the Wild
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On rare occasions, there are bands that come forward in an almost liquid audio state, able to fit in every mold given to it, fluid enough to become any number of complex shapes or chaotic spattering. The fusion of occult death metal to ritualistic black metal without over-adopting elements of either, forging ahead as something truly individualistic, and something that shirks conventional naming, Egregore lurch from the abyss with their sophomore effort, entitled It Echoes in the Wild, due out March 20th through 20 Buck Spin. The feverish fusion of extreme elements creates an audio abomination drenched in darkness and mystique, fathoming destructive ideas and harnessing lethal compositional execution.

Three talented musicians – Essentia Collapse, Catastrophe Saturna, and Helios Thread – representing past and current membership with groups such as Auroch, Garotting Deep, Mitochondrion, and Atemporal, all pull multi-instrumentalist duties on It Echoes in the Wild, allowing three sets of ideas to merge together into something devastatingly unique. Drums are frantic, like charging horses and riff structures range from suffocatingly claustrophobic to bizarre and airy, interspersed with screaming lead work and doubled-up havoc. Technical, but not overbearing. Brutal, but translatable. Wild, but restrained.

One could use names like StarGazer, Mortuary Drape, or The Chasm to try and nail down the tonality employed by Egregore, but that’s simplifying far too much. All of the prior mentioned bands stand alone in terms of creative output, carving their own lanes and their own identities, no idol or hero worship on their ends, which is the destiny Egregore is creating for themselves.

There is something specifically unique to the way It Echoes in the Wild plays out, the drumming is hyper-manic, dense, commanding, beckoning obliteration alongside the spastic and ever-churning riff work. Each member pulls some degree of vocal duty throughout the album, so there is the constant barrage of different narrative styles, ranging from thick gutturals to cryptic whispers, all the way to demonic falsettos. The compositions vary internally and from one song to the next, sometimes leaning into convention and other times launching into extended atmospheric bridges or drawn-out lengths of scalpel-like lead work. With each member taking on a multi-instrumentalist role, there exists both creative cohesion and rapid bursts of creation and destruction that signal skilled and disciplined musicians.

‘Cast Adrift’ introduces the tonal palette employed on It Echoes in the Wild. A triumphant pair of guitar tones, radiating low and mid-range heat, with lead work screaming in twisted agony. Lighter guitar tones in the form of acoustic detailing offset the churning quagmire of distortion. The production on the percussion is phenomenal, bursting with detail and mixed with lethal intent, a treat for those listening on large speakers; cymbals ring with fever, bass drums strike like distant mortar impacts, and the snare is a tight and aggressive pop.

‘Voice on the West Wind’ bursts into reality, bringing the album into a state of violent execution. Churning guitar work coupled with lightning-fast double bass could invoke the chaos of early Angelcorpse with its level of corporeal malignancy. Transitions are frequent and chaotic, yet highly deliberate, with each twist and turn leading into different shades of ruin and abandon. Ghostly soloing and lead work meets with the lighter detailing of acoustic strumming buried deep into the fabric of the track, present, although like a phantom in the night.

Without refraining, the band move directly into a black thrash-styled opening riff, leading into ‘Stair into the Vortex.’ The opening riff, combined with the furious rhythmic thunder accenting it, absolutely should whip a crowd into a violent frenzy. It’s one of the beautiful things about this music that cannot be replicated by other forms of sonic expression, when the aural elements line up and deliver such fury that it could inspire violence. This is simply a massive, ugly, heavy track that shows the disgusting capabilities of Essentia Collapse behind the drum kit. It has a short and miserable existence but one that is impactful, something that will be remembered, involuntarily.

There is no slowing down. There is no sense of relief to the anxiety Egregore inflicts with their composing and delivery.

Longer tracks such as ‘The Craven Acts of Desperate Men’ and the title track run for significant lengths, allowing the band to explore sonic textures at their leisure, developing and wielding sophisticated passages of interlinked long-form riffing, strange melodies, and thick, grinding tremolo.

Deep into the record lay songs such as ‘Nightmare Cartographer,’ with subtle yet eerie synth detailing and thrashing on par with middle-era Absu, a punishing demonstration of angular riffing and bone-snapping, high-impact transitions. ‘Servants of the Second Death’ employs everything from storming chord progressions, to grinding tremolo, to weeping arpeggios. As the record inches towards termination, it becomes more heightened, more aggressive, and more confrontational, giving the album a rigid, complete feeling where each track is unique and commanding with no filler and no periods of genre-tourism.

Calling It Echoes in the Wild a ‘heavy’ record is such a gross understatement. Egregore deliver a sonic nightmare of occult and mystic death metal, moving from measure to measure with a deliberate and murderous intent, collectively coming together to create a sum of decimation and sense-startling aggression. The record plays with an authentic fury, nothing manufactured or dreamed up, there are no illusions or smoke that the band hides behind, make no mistake, It Echoes in the Wild is an open confrontation on the senses.

Label: 20 Buck Spin
Band: Egregore

AJK