Pseudogod, Deathwomb Catechesis

I’m not going to lie. I had to look up the meaning of “catechesis,” as I’m sure a majority (if not all) of you did when finding out that Russia’s Pseudogod was poised to release their first major full-length after half a decade of splits and demos. Deathwomb Catechesis and it’s dense churning wall of vile black/death metal certainly won’t be echoing the learnings of Christianity any time soon. Quite the opposite. The eight tracks confined within this blast of modern and old school death metal is as evil and as anti-everything as you can get.

Pseudogod are on the verge of something great with their debut effort. With a firm, gauntletted grasp on the fundamentals of OSDM, these guys char it up nicely with the fires of Hades, as well as inject some modern death intricacies within its violent depths. As a whole, the album enfolds around you as an intense atmosphere of hellish proportions. Individually, each track contributes to this suffocating wall of destruction, yet still carry elements that help them stand out from the brutal onslaught.

“Vehement Decimation” lulls you into a false sense of security over the first 40 seconds or so before violently shoving their spiked fist down your throat with guttural growls, driving guitars and unrelenting rhythms. The opening track is a blistering eruption of blackened death metal that we haven’t heard the likes of so far this year. The guys do slow things down for a little head banging groove to infect your soul, but each moment of the track (like the entire album) is densely layered and colder than Andy Gibb’s rotting disco corpse.

While this wall of hate blends together violently at times, there are moments of levity that really stand out. “Malignant Spears” off and on again outbursts of violence is addictive while the barbaric drum work of “Saturnalia” will leave you a quivering shell of your former self. The massive chugging riffs of “Azazel” and “The Antichrist Victory” temper the angular and sharp attack that dominates most of this stellar album for a bit before all hells breaks loose with “Necromancy of the Iron Darkness” — a track that is so awesome in its violent atmosphere that you’ve just got to listen to it once or twice more before moving on to the remaining tracks.

The tandem of “Encarnación del mal” and “The Triangular Phosphorescence” close out Deathwomb Catechesis with further proof that these guys are on the cusp of progressing death metal in a bleak, desolate direction. Both tracks infuse elements of traditional metal, thrash, death and black into an amalgam of hatred and blasphemy — which is ultimately what Pseudogod’s debut is all about. Fuck your god.