(written by Islander)
It is with terrible delight today that we help announce a new album by the tremendous Brasilian death/doom band Fossilization. It bears the name Advent of Wounds, and it’s set for release on February 13th by the ever-tasteful Everlasting Spew Records. The label rightly describes it as “a work of sheer ferocity and oppressive gloom” — “bleak, crushing and claustrophobic”, “a summoning of despair that drags the listener into a chasm where brutality and anguish entwine.”
In its current configuration, Fozzilization is still principally the work of V. (voices, guitars, bass) from the sludge/death/doom metal band Jupiterian, but now joined by guitarist Z. Before we get to the main subject of this post — our premiere of the first advance song from Advent of Wounds — we want to share a statement by V. about this new album:
Photo by Rick Rocha
Advent of Wounds began taking shape right after our tour with Father Befouled in late 2024. I knew I’d have to rethink my approach to songwriting, especially after years of writing with Paulo’s drumming style in mind. Life took us in different directions, so I opened myself up to new ideas and let that guide the creation of these tracks.
From the start, my goal was to make an album even more brutal than Leprous Daylight, from sheer death metal brutality to the miserable melancholy of the doom-laden spirit of early Anathema, Paradise Lost, and early Katatonia. You can also hear many black metal influences across the record, the opening riff of “Disentombed and Reassembled by the Ages” is a direct nod to one of my all-time favorite bands, Antaeus.
This time, I also wanted a new direction in the mix and master, so we worked with Gabriele Gramaglia (Cosmic Putrefaction, Turris Eburnea, Vertebra Atlantis). We also had Justin Stubbs (Father Befouled, Encoffination) appear on “Scalded by His Sacred Halo.” And, for the first time, the artwork features a painting instead of an illustration, created by the incredible Guang Yang.
And now we turn to our premiere of the album track “Cremation Of A Seraph“, which is a prime example of how musical representations of evil, derangement, and despair can be as exhilarating as jamming a live power line into your neck. As the song’s title represents, it lyrically portrays in vivid terms the incineration of a seraph, in which “hungry flames will feast”, and an “arcane herd is drowned in poisoned black fog”, followed by a “hissing from the void.”
Without warning, “Cremation Of A Seraph” immediately throws the listener into a violent and unnerving maelstrom of sound, a fire-storm made of furiously blasting drums, urgently undulating bass-throbs, and riffing that sounds like a swarming and maniacally writhing blizzard of embers – gritty and corrosive, but like a living thing that’s been driven mad.
When the vocals arrive, they’re cavernous and cold — a contrast with the crazed contortions of the guitars, one of which feverishly spirals higher and also morbidly slithers, creating even more berserk and distressing manifestations of madness.
Even when the rhythm section slow their pace, rumbling and stalking, the abrasive tremolo’d fever of the guitars persists, but the music also seems to egregiously moan as well as convulse. The drums also murderously pound, like sledgehammers on skulls, which seems to excite the whirring guitars, driving them into electrifying cascades of swarming frenzy.
Nearer the end the music changes, slowly groaning and wailing, augmented by voices that scream as well as roar, but the sensations of oppressive hopelessness are still segmented by bursts of fretwork mania and percussive fury.
Advent of Wounds was produced by V. and Z., engineered by Marcos Cerutti at Hellspass Studio, and mixed and mastered by Gabriele Gramaglia. Drums were recorded by F.
Everlasting Spew will release the album on February 13th on CD, cassette tape, and digital formats, with a vinyl edition expected by the late spring of 2026. Pre-orders will begin today at the locations linked below. The album comes recommended for fans of Dead Congregation, Krypts, Spectral Voice, and Antaeus.
PRE-ORDER:
https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com/
https://www.everlastingspew.com
FOSSILIZATION:
https://www.facebook.com/fossilization