apanthropy

Bringers of Disease
Sulphur
Disorder Recordings
So Below Productions
Released: April 24th, 2026

Rating: 8.5/10

“This is a veteran lineup. They compose like a veteran lineup. They sound like a veteran lineup. Most importantly, the music, execution, and end delivery feel fortified and cohesive. This is not a loose collection of ideas. There is no vanity here. This is power and the intent to wield that power to destroy.”

–
1 – Return to Satan
2 – The Greatest Heresy
3 – First Born of the Dead
4 – Sacred Heart of the Abyss
5 – Sulphur
6 -Flowers Bloom from the Prophet’s Skull
7 – March of the Burning Tower
–

Ohio is usually not the first of the United States people think of when it comes to extreme music. California is synonymous with thrash metal, Florida lays claim to death metal with New York not trailing far behind, the Texas scene has always been its own ecosystem of noise, and the Pacific Northwest is a frontline in the American black metal scene.

Ohio is the pipe bomb of America. It’s the wildcard. God buys his heroin right off of the W. 117^th exit in Lakewood.

Fentanyl, Amish people, and flat stretches of land. East Cleveland looks like the Ukrainian/Russian front, everything north of Columbus has been consumed by rust, and Lake Erie, on its best day, smells like a humid public bathroom. People come to Ohio to abandon hope, to bury their dreams. And because of it, there’s a lot of good bands and a lot of quality material being produced by them.

Bringers of Disease, for example.

Tracing their lineage back to 2008 and striking first in 2010 with Rehearsal MMX and then again in 2011 with their first formal EP Gospel of Pestilence. But after 2011, it would be many years before the band released anything official. 14 years to be exact.

The band reemerged in 2025, like a chrysalis opening and releasing a cloud of sarin gas. The group was renewed, the line-up was absolutely stacked with talented composers, and the hunt for blood was on. March of the Burning Tower would mark the return of Bringers of Disease, two tracks, less than ten minutes, but sufficient enough to pique interest in most of the seasoned listeners that encountered it.

April 24th, 2026, marks the release of the band’s debut full-length, Sulphur, a seven track hellride of textured riff crafting, intelligent percussion, and a fusion of the elements of black metal and death metal in a stunningly even balance. At 30 minutes in length, this is a compact and lethal listen, offering everything from listless ambiance to full-on blasting death.

The renewed lineup and guest contributions on Sulphur deserve close examination. Vocalist Logan Madison and guitarist Jason Phillips remain the caretakers of the band’s early days, with Jason Phillips also playing in Darkness Undying and having served time on the live circuit with the well-known Acheron. Jon Woodring handles bass responsibilities, Woodring also performs in Bones and Doomsday and has been a member of multiple well-known Chicago acts, such as Kommandant, Nachtmystium, and Usurper. Jeff Wilson takes on the second guitarist role, also a member of Chrome Waves, and a former member of Abigail Williams, Nachtmystium, and Wolvhammer. The core lineup is rounded out by Zack Simmons on drums, perhaps best known for his extensive tenure in Goatwhore, having also performed live with Nachtmystium and Acid Bath. Guest contributors include Ben Falgoust, vocalist of Goatwhore, and Nate Garnette of Skeletonwitch adding guitar work to the record alongside that of Sonny Reinhardt, member of Necrot.

This is a veteran lineup. They perform like a veteran lineup. They sound like a veteran lineup. Most importantly, the music, execution, and end delivery feel fortified and cohesive. This is not a loose collection of ideas. There is no vanity here. This is power and the intent to wield that power to destroy.

Elements of death metal and black metal, whether it be phrasing, riff structures, or rhythms, conjoin in a manner that is almost remarkably inseparable. Many bands who venture in hybrid territory almost always have one genre outweighing the other, and many times, ‘blackened death metal’ is simply death metal with a vocalist that can’t hit gutturals. This is a dark album, not so much in lyrical content, but in the way it’s crafted, composed, and put together.

‘Return to Satan’ rumbles into existence on distorted waves of cacophony, guitars pierce with grinding and swaying tremolo, and the drums bring in forward movement through mid-tempo blasting. The vocals enter; ghostly, demonic, restrained yet feral. Riffs move and cycle through a battery of composing techniques, powerful chord voicing and chord progression choices create moments of ‘vastness,’ rhythm-centric palm-muted measures and beats close in on the listener, brief passages of complimentary droning ambiance create a sensation of otherworldliness. It is the sonic death of the mundane in real-time.

Bearing the ritualistic is ‘The Great Heresy,’ a combination of hypnotic rhythm-intensive riffing and acute ghostly droning through wailing guitar or distortion-drenched vocals. Raging guitar chugs and pounding double-bass create mosh-worthy cataclysm.

Slowing things down is the early phrasing of ‘First Born of the Dead,’ merging beautiful guitar textures with funereal vocals. The buildup of tension is what makes this one of the most crucial tracks on Sulphur. It forms during the slower intro segment and builds through a slightly more up-tempo continuation. It cycles between the two before resolving into a monstrous passage of high-speed blasting, reaching an almost mechanized-sounding state, a strobe of pure strikes. The buildup of tension in the early part of the track and the resolution and release for the closing half is masterful. The twisted firebrand of a lead that draws the song into its conclusion deserves mention for its wonderful feeling of presence, somewhat bluesy, somewhat dismal, sharp like broken glass.

‘Sacred Heart of the Abyss’ is a full-on assault on the senses. Confrontational, hyperaggressive, bearing scars of discord and melody, perhaps the most cohesive blend of black metal and death metal on the album.

‘Flowers Bloom from the Prophet’s Skull’ and ‘March of the Burning Tower’ feed the fires of Sulphur deep into its runtime. Providing more of an open composing, less dense, more atmospheric, the songs offer solid contrast when paired with the earlier, slightly more aggressive and straightforward tracks.

The production can only be described as visceral. It is beyond pleasing in a sonic sense. The amount of depth and body to the overall delivery is gorgeous. The fixation on the low-end is something missing dreadfully in many modern records. The punch to the bass drums is something you would feel standing in the center of a crowd during a live show, not some boxy, thin, or compressed-and-limited-to-death nonsense. Riffs sound scalpel-sharp during grinding, airy during more restrained note sequences, and meaty during palm-muted note clusters, their presence is frontal and commanding, as it should be. The bass is plentiful and warm, full-bodied, complimenting the already deep tone worship on the record.

The cassette version of the album, which was handled by So Below Productions, is a great piece of physical media, both in presentation and sound. The black-on-black of the shell with the subtle detailing of the font and lettering, clean, almost in a sense of the business card scene from American Psycho. And the playback, fucking massive. The low-end is hot, bestial, at loud volumes, even with no sub-woofer, this is a wall shaker of a tape.

Sulphur is not a one-listen release. That, in and of itself, is a big deal in 2026, where countless records flood the listening space on a daily basis, where listeners can barely sit through a full-length album, and exploration beyond one’s personal preference is sometimes dismal. This is a record that you’ll end up repeating. Between the flow, the length, and the strength of each composition and individual component going into it, there is great replay value at work.

Again, this is the work of veteran musicians. It shows in each detail, and each creative investment that was wagered ultimately formed into seven songs that explore the dark and the brutal in a sense that feels authentic. There is no cosplay bullshit, fretboard wankery, or unformed ideas.  The strongest showing for Bringers of Disease up to this point in their existence.  

Label: Disorder Recordings
Label: So Below Productions
Band: Bringers of Disease

AJK