Style: technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Spawn of Possession, Necrophagist, Decrepit Birth, Defeated Sanity
Country: Sweden
Release date: 21 February 2025
The search for the techiest band is a fool’s errand, but believe me, I’ve tried. The problem is that technicality is ill-defined. You want speed? Archspire. Compositional complexity? Ad Nauseam. Pure scale exercises? Viraemia. But if you’re on the search for the knotty, labyrinthine, and Baroque, Spawn of Possession were the zenith. With Spawn of Possession disbanding eight years ago, the tech death scene experienced a great loss as guitarist and composer Jonas Bryssling never joined another band, leaving only inferior acolytes in their prodigious wake. But now, thirteen years after Spawn of Possession’s swansong Incurso, Retromorphosis have come to claim the gnarled tech throne.
“But how?” I hear you collectively asking. “Surely nobody could replace Spawn of Possession’s unique voice in tech!” Well Retromorphosis ARE Spawn of Possession, or rather features all members of the band that once was Spawn of Possession (including Byrssling!) except for KC Howard as a replacement on drums. And despite a decade-and-change of rust, Spawn of Possession Retromorphosis remain unchanged sonically. Psalumus Mortis is, of course, intricate but also quite old-school. After a decade of being at the frontier of prog and tech death, Christian Muenzner has returned to his Necrophagist-y roots; Erlend Caspersen has improved at the bass, if anything; and vocalist Dennis Röndum still has his distinctive pre-Archspire Archspire-style percussive growls, rapidly storytelling twisted narratives. “Aunt Christie’s Will” certainly seems similar to Ms. Sinclair in “The Evangelist.”
Along with the nostalgia trip comes some flaws on Psalmus Mortis regretfully magnified with time. For instance, while I understand the desire for rawer, more old-school production, the gothic “choirs” in tracks like “Obscure Exordium” and “Retromorphosis” should not be produced like they are in 2025—they were excusable fifteen years ago. The more melodic moments needn’t be relegated to a sibilant quality to the background, and the relatively poor production only hurts the composition by losing out on the minutiae. Moreover, the production is thin, and while the bass has a nice clacking tone, the other instruments feel a little weak in comparison, especially the lead guitar parts. That’s a shame because Psalmus Mortis excels at lead guitar parts as one would expect. “Vanished” and “Aunt Christie’s Will” both feature ripping Muenzner solos redolent of the good ol days of tech before all the “quantized BS” Retromorphosis seem deathly afraid of. Other tracks like “The Tree” and the lengthy “The Machine” are just straight up intimidating with their technical riffing. If you missed Spawn of Possession, those tracks should be all the stitching you need to sew up your once-broken heart.
Naturally, Retromorphosis are as technical as you’d expect, extremely twisted riffs atop rapid-fire vocals and drums. But in the past decade or so, the scene has caught up to—and possibly exceeded—this lineup, although partially by design. Psalmus Mortis seems to place a greater emphasis on groove and heft in the songwriting than prior Spawn of Possession material, and I think the writing decision in the studio is a bit ridiculous: why advertise your band as the second-coming of goddamn Spawn of Possession and then dial back the technicality, even if just a smidgen? That’s like promising the Rapture and then sending down the Antichrist… oh wait. But seriously, no matter how well-composed these songs are (they are written wonderfully and are complicated yet approachable), I feel like I’m missing out on what I craved. Psalmus Mortis is produced awkwardly and is less technically interesting than Incurso. Heck, it’s an iota less ambitious in every manner: this thing only has a single lengthy track while Incurso had two; it’s a tad slower on average; and it’s also a decade later, allowing other bands to attain similar levels of craziness.
Despite all the flaws, nobody else is Spawn of Possession Retromorphosis. Jonas Bryssling is a special composer, his characteristic contrapuntal style still on full display, and nobody has vocals quite like Dennis Röndum. Psalmus Mortis scratches the itch and would be a technical triumph of the highest order for any other band, but I’m left merely whelmed.
Recommended tracks: Vanished, Aunt Christie’s Will
You may also like: Vomit the Hate, Carnosus, Hannes Grossmann, Aronious
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Season of Mist – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Retromorphosis is:
– Jonas Bryssling (guitars)
– Dennis Röndum (vocals)
– Christian Muenzner (guitars)
– Erlend Caspersen (bass)
– KC Howard (drums)
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