Review by Jeger on March 9, 2026.

There was a time when the vision for Death Metal was a morbid one. A time when "Scream Bloody Gore", "Eaten Back to Life" and "Slowly We Rot" reigned supreme. It took a true visionary to take a strictly maligned genre and turn it into something astounding. Once again enters Chuck Schuldiner, Death and along with them a little album known as 1991's "Human". And the genre would never be the same. We were beginning to understand Death Metal's potential as a more-than-viable form of art. We're not talking about frightening Churchgoers or freaking out parents. With this album, a new era was ushered in and an all new way of recording Death Metal was born. The Tech-Death revolution had begun…

Today's Technical Death Metal scene is a ridiculous, soulless one. Infected by bands like The Zenith Passage and Archspire who have zero clue as to what true Technical Death Metal should sound like. Okay, so you can blast on your kit at a million beats per second and doodle your guitar at a thousand miles per hour, but where's the class? The character, the reverence! There is none, so let's rewind to 1992, back to the sweaty Florida heat with a band called Monstrosity and their debut album, "Imperial Doom". A true Death Metal album to the bone but souped-up with flashes of riffing technicality and unorthodox rhythmic prowess. Stuff that made Obituary sound like a Hobo band. But it was fucking DEATH METAL and that's what is most important. Prog, Tech and Avant-Garde must still be rooted in fundamentals and should always be discernible as DM. In 1996, Monstrosity released their magnum opus, "Millennium" and Tech perfection was realized.

Do you even know what a great album 2018's "The Passage Of Existence" is? You should, because it's a fucking banger. An overlooked gem, a perfect record from top to bottom. For those of us in the know, it left us salivating for more, but alas, no new album until this year. Eight years and a beast of an album to try and topple in your previous release? I hope these boys are up for the task. On March 13, Monstrosity will release "Screams From Beneath The Surface" via Metal Blade Records.

"SFBTS" kicks off with "Banished To The Sky" and right away we're met with that beautiful textbook Monstrosity guitar tone and those masterful tremolo-loaded riffs. And it's as I mentioned earlier, it's the just right level of technical: soulful lead and some melody infused hooks, but set off by a myriad of nuances in rhythm and intricacies in riffing. In following, you'll encounter "The Colossal Rage" in all of its Thrash-laden splendor. Revving the engines now and just owning every moment is Monstrosity. Remember the first time you listened to "Millenium"? How it just blew your fucking mind? Well, this is nothing like that. "Screams From Beneath The Surface" is in some ways like the comfort of a glass of Bourbon and in others like the first time you saw a pair of tits in person: aroused, excited and eagerly anticipating the next moment. Hefty grooves hammer down during "Spiral". What a brilliant synergy of brutality and Tech savvy. And those solos just keep getting better…

Who knows what kind of concepts we're delving into? Who cares?! Because musically, it doesn't get much sweeter. Epic compositions and break-neck shifts in tempo leave you bewildered. Striking leads leave you in awe. Mighty grooves weigh you down in tracks like the aforementioned

"Spiral" and "The Thorns". Suffocating one moment and set adrift the next but always returning to the heart of the matter - true fucking Death Metal. Some mainstream bands are actually capable of creating Extreme Metal in its truest form: Watain, Mayhem, Morbid Angel and of course Monstrosity here, and that is due to passion. You can tell when a band needs to hang it up and there's none of that going on here. "Screams From Beneath The Surface" is indicative of a band with plenty of juice left, plenty of great ideas but most importantly, plenty of understanding of what constitutes the real authentic Technical Death Metal experience. Perfection, bitches… Dig it.

Rating: 10 out of 10