(written by Islander)
This makes our sixth premiere of music from the Atlanta-area death metal band Occulsed since the start of 2021. In those past features we’ve described their music as “a filthy discharge of clobbering and eviscerating madness.” We’ve called it “grotesque,” “putrid,” “abysmal,” and “abhorrent.” We’ve highlighted the band’s talent “for creating electrifying visions of horror and disease, of madness and mayhem, and of blood-freezing intrusions from spectral realms.”
We’ve also asserted that the music is “is both predatory and hopeless, noxious and deranged, horrifyingly imperious and seemingly gleeful in its deviant revels,” but “so well-constructed and maliciously well-realized that it becomes addictive (as well as foul).”
Now we get a chance to try to cook up further ways of describing just how punishing and paranormal the music of Occulsed really is. They have a new album named Antegnosis coming our way in September via Everlasting Spew Records, and we have a song from it coming your way right now.
We’re not the only people who’ve tried to create vivid descriptions of Occulsed‘s vividly ghastly music. Everlasting Spew has described Antegnosis as: “A cryptic tome of dissonant revelation! A fever-drenched liturgy of warped riffcraft and guttural incantations, dragging listeners through a labyrinth of sonic decay. A necrotic ritual steeped in arcane resonance!”
Once again, the new album is the work of guitarist and bassist Justin Stubbs (Father Befouled, Encoffination, and many more), drummer extraordinaire Jared Moran (Gastric Phantasm, Acausal Intrusion, Cave, and dozens more), and vocalist Kenneth Parker (Maestus, Lodge of the Empty Bed, many more). Collectively, they have a ton of experience in the making of extreme metal of various stripes. It shows here once again.
“Heinous Pulse“, the first single from Antegnosis, is what we have for you now. It is well-named. It sounds like blood poison, lethal fever, and the ruinous consequences of that infection. It also sounds like the manifestation of fiends from beyond the world we (think) we know.
The poison spreads immediately through boiling riffage and diseased harmonies, corrosive in tone and demented in mood, backed by rumbling and booming beats and subterranean bass-turbulence. There’s agony in these sensations, but, as the riffing shifts and disgusting guttural gurgles arrive, the music begins to sound increasingly crazed, with drums blasting and the guitars freakishly writhing.
Things change again, showing us the gangrenous rot. The pace slows and the guitars create a slowly slithering sonic pustulence and agonies without hope. When Occulsed accelerate again and deliver big tribal booms, that’s when the fiends come out, manifested through a deliriously shrieking and weirdly wailing guitar solo — which itself also sounds diseased.
“Heinous Pulse” is a nasty piece of work, a grisly horror, but (no surprise here) it’s also infectious — in both senses of the word.
As for the meaning of the new album’s title, we quote Occulsed:
“ANTEGNOSIS” : “Before Knowledge.” This refers to the antediluvian and ante-human theme of our sound and the formless primordial ooze from which we are borne.
The new album was recorded by Occulsed. It was mixed and mastered by Justin Stubbs, with additional mixing by D. Goulding. Justin Stubbs also created the new album’s eye-catching cover art as well as the logo, and layout/design.
Antegnosis will be released by Everlasting Spew on September 26th on CD, cassette tape, and digital formats, with a vinyl edition planned for early 2026. They recommend it for fans of Incantation, Morpheus Descends, Funebrarum, and Blaspherian. Pre-orders will become available soon via the link below.
PRE-ORDER:
https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com/album/antegnosis
OCCULSED:
https://occulsed.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/occulsed/