There's been a surge in new American bands reincarnating classic death metal from the late 80's and early 90's. The rebirth, honestly, has been thrilling to see. For someone who was very young in the early 90's, I missed a lot of the initial hysteria that surrounded bands like Morbid Angel and Bolt Thrower. So to see newer bands like Petrification bring that classic flair to modern death metal certainly eases that ache.
This isn't the first time the Portland quintet has appeared on Metal Injection. Roughly this time last year, the band unveiled their demo, Summon Horrendous Destruction. The four-song demo was a brief welcome to the fold. 2018 serves as a proper introduction for the band, however. Their debut full-length album, Hollow of the Void, arrives April 23. Three of the four tracks from their debut demo find their way onto the new record, and so does "Arachne Exsanguine" —a fucking ripper of a track.
At barely three minutes long, it's a quick burst of deadly might. It opens with a deep, rolling riff and a furious, rhythmic stomp. Jason Barnett's bellowing growl—one which bears semblance to a young Karl Willetts—emerges over fiery licks from Tom Roberts and David Pruitt's layered guitars. The gritty low-end from Mario Thunder (drums) and Chris Nukala (bass) undoubtedly add to the menace of Petrification's music. The instrumentation, interestingly enough, parallels early Finnish bands like Convulse around the time of World Without God.
Watch the animated music video for "Arachne Exsanguine" below. Kathryn Caligari completed the animation for the video while Jason Barnett did the artwork. Pre-orders for Hollow of the Void are also available now through Sentient Ruin Laboratories (Vinyl/Tape, USA), Memento Mori (CD, World), To The Death Records and Dawnbreed Records (Vinyl, Europe). Be sure to follow Petrification on Facebook and catch them on the road during their upcoming tour. The dates are also below.
