Vomitory In Death Throes Review

Vomitory

In Death Throes

Metal Blade Records

2026

From a faraway Scandinavian land that is damn near mythical as it is iconic, Sweden has some of the best metal that has graced our ears in the past 40 years (God, I feel old saying that). However, the country's main export that has left an indelible scar on the underground and the music industry as a whole is its death metal. The macabre tradition continues here with the latest from countrymen Vomitory and their brand new 10-song full-length, In Death Throes.

This latest full-length is accentuated by two important facts. Vomitory got their start in 1989 (releasing no less than eight albums between 1996–2011), parted ways in 2013, then returned to the stage in 2019. Secondly, this is their tenth studio album following their 2023-recorded comeback, All Heads Are Gonna Roll. With that brief history lesson out of the way, when discussing Vomitory’s music, it's important to note that they defy the genre trappings of Swedish death metal. You're not getting HM-2 buzzsaw guitars, nor are you getting the fabled “Gothenburg Sound” (At the Gates, etc.). What they do bring to the table is brutal death metal with a dash of technicality and old-school sensibility, and plenty of seething rage. IDT was “recorded across multiple studios in late 2025. Drums and vocals were recorded at Leon Music Studios in Karlstad, Sweden, with producer Rikard Löfgren, who previously worked on Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize, Carnage Euphoria, and Opus Mortis VIII, handling the engineering. Guitars and bass were tracked at Goff Studios in Karlstad, with Christian Fredriksson taking the reins as the engineer. For mixing and mastering, the band once again turned to Lawrence Mackrory (Paradise Lost, Bloodbath, Lik) at Rorysound Studios in Uppsala, Sweden.”

The mix is even, crushing, and heavy, while still giving every instrument and vocal plenty of breathing room.

Leading off with “Rapture to Rupture,” they surely mean business right from the get-go. Punctuated by speed-of-light blast beats, shredding guitar solos, and the low-slung growls n’ grunts of Erik Rundqvist (vocals/bass), this is a riffing speed fest that is over in just under three minutes. Continuing that thread, “For Gore and Country” hits with more of the same before settling into a mosh-worthy mid-paced verse, only to circle back around to more blasts, d-beat madness, bellows, and intensity. “Forever Scorned” punches you in the face next with even more fast-paced misanthropy. By now, if you are familiar with Vomitory, you know what you are getting, and these first three tracks drive that point home: pure, unadulterated brutal death. This is not to say they are resting on any laurels. The urgency and ferocity seem to have been turned up a notch, and this is no doubt due in part to fresh blood in new guitarist Christian Fredriksson, who contributed to four of the ten tracks here. “Wrath Unbound” is the highlight for me personally, as it has a nice, thrashy plod peppered with some well-placed, slower melodic sections and double-kick-led chug parts. The harmonized guitar bit into a ten-ton breakdown doesn't hurt here either toward the song's end. Atmosphere and creepy ambience start off the title track, “In Death Throes,” and then it leans into more tremolo-picked, mid-paced plod with a blistering solo section behind more caffeine-fueled drumming. Other notable highlights are the Slayeresque “Two and a Half Men,” the distorted bass-led stomper “Erased in Red,” and the closer, “Oblivion Protocol.”

Vomitory have delivered an album that is on par with their previous comeback full-length and, in many ways, have surpassed it with keen attention to more brutality and speed this time out. The whole shebang clocks in at just 35:10, so they have also trimmed the arrangements of any fat and seem focused, invigorated, and out for blood. Cheers to a now 37-year career, gentlemen. If they keep churning out stuff this tight, catchy, and concise, then they're going to be sticking around for a while and will have piles of bodies to prove it. Slay on, dudes. The death metal world is better with you in it…

RIYL- Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Obituary, Vader, Deicide, Rotten Sound

TB