Since spewing out from the Swedish death metal scene back in 1996, Vomitory have been one of the most consistent acts in extreme metal. Album after album of no-frills, brutal, yet enthralling Swedeath emerged from the puke shack, and you could always look forward to getting something gruesome and sick from them. They had a long layoff after 2011s Opus Mortis VIII, but when they came back with 2023s All Heads Are Gonna Roll, it was as if they never left at all. That platter was tried-and-trve Vomitory: aggressive, heavy, abrasive, but weirdly catchy. Now they’re back in the hunt with 10th album, In Death Throes, sporting new axe worker Christian Fredriksson in place of Peter Östlund. Is this corpse still delectable and appropriately unsavory? Will their simple but effective template finally start to show signs of metal fatigue? Let’s discuss these questions at the Vomitorium.
Mere seconds into opener “Rapture in Rupture,” you know you’re in for a good, rough time. This is Vomitory in all their putrid glory. HM-2 powered riffs buzz loudly like diseased insects, drums thunder and blast, and Erik Rundqvist roars over the chaos like a sick wilderbeast in heat. The energy level is set to “Berserk Meth Nutter on Crack,” and the riffs work to peel away your skin and degrade your bone structure. It offers nothing you haven’t heard before, or even something you haven’t heard from Vomitory before, but that matters not at all because this shit kills. Lead single “For Gore and Country” keeps the adrenaline and testosterone pumping with more high-speed gore and near-grind death, and it’s a joy to be bulldozed by it. The band refuse to ease back on the death throttle until 4th track, “Wrath Unbound,” where they slot into Bolt Thrower territory and appropriate that war-loving crew’s iconic riff palette for a bit of tank-in-the-muck grinding. It works very well, though it makes me long for a new Bolt Thrower album.
Elsewhere, “Cataclysmic Fleshfront” goes extra fast and mean on those still left in the fight, at times verging on beef-brained slam in a way that will bring Dolphin Whisperer to the yard faster than any cheesy milkshake ever could. This is abrasive, brain-deadening shit, but Vomitory uses the chaos to try a few new things, and damn if those big chugs aren’t satisfying. If you were to play this at the gym, your primal ape rage would increase tenfold as other gym goers fled in terror. “Two and a Half Men” introduces a simple yet effective riff, then absolutely beats you into a bloody pulp with it for 3 in the most relentless way possible. I mean this as a positive. Closer “Oblivion Protocol” injects interestingly melodic and moody harmonies into the mix, possibly as a balm to help you recover from the 30-plus minute mega-ass whopping they just put on you. It’s a cool changeup, and it sticks out. Are there lesser moments? I suppose one could say “Forever Scorned” isn’t quite as tremendously murderous as its peers, but it’s still a good song with loads of death boulders to hurl. At a very tight 38-plus minutes and with all songs in the 3-4 minutes window, In Death Throes blows your head off and then fucks off in quick order. Nothing stays too long or feels bloated. At the same time, the songs all have their own identity and don’t bleed into a revolting mush as they easily could with a less practiced hand at the wheel.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Erik Rundqvist’s death vocals, and In Death Throes is another testament to his unnatural abilities. His roars are just guttural enough to hit that subhuman level and add the right amount of sick extremity to the material. He isn’t puking up nuclear hairballs a la Cryptworm, but he doesn’t sound restrained either. Longtime guitarist Urban Gustafsson pairs well with newcomer Christian Fredriksson and together they uncork a nonstop succession of ragged, jagged riffs designed to traumatize and harm. They even toss a killer Exodus riff into “Erased in Red” that’s better than what we actually heard from Exodus recently. Tobias Gustafsson has the unenviable task of keeping up with the rest of these maniac mauraders, and his kit work is frantic, frenzied, and just technical enough to satisfy. Once again, Vomitory stick to what always worked for them, and somehow, it works as well now as it did in 1996.
Vomitory made a fierce comeback in 2023, and now they’re showing it was no late-career fluke with In Death Throes. This is a rowdy, skull-crushing death metal opus with plenty of meat to chew on. All that meat is rancid, so all the better! Trust in Vomitory and get your ears assailed by this blasty bastard. It would be wise, my friends.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: vomitory.net | vomitory.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/vomitoryband | instagram.com/vomitoryband
Releases Worldwide: April 10th, 2026
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