The Danish veterans return with a lineup that consists of Jan Bergmann Jepsen (vocals), Rune Koldby (bass) Nicolai Kaltoft (drums), and Robert Tengs (rhythm guitar).

The third studio album “Serpent Devourment” is a crushingly heavy old-school death metal record with a classic approach to songwriting and production. This glorious comeback from the band takes a morbid and raw direction, starting from the uncanny moments in the opening track “Serpent Devourment” Jan Bergmann Jepsen‘s brutal vocals along with the relentless drumming pace and the grimy distorted riffage maintain the classic raw death metal sound.

Monstrous growled vocals take most of the credit, the riffs make your adrenaline levels shoot up due to the tight brutal riffing, blasting drums, and the catchy rhythm guitar in the song “The Deny of Misery”. The song structure has many memorable and catchy moments. The HM-2 guitar tone keeps the typical approach of the Dens in the album and is reinforced by the bass guitar striking a pulverizing drive, Maceration imposes some atmospheric guitars with dynamics and grooves.

The album is notable with its mid-paced and Swedish style of death metal; however, the guitars emphasize atmosphere and catchy leads, rhythm, and melodies that will never bore fans of old-school death metal. Songs like “A Corrosive Heart Fell Below” and “Where Leeches Thrive” are well measured with grooves and heavy riffage onslaught in the mid-tempo that will instantly make you head-bang to the insane blast beats.

While sounding rapid and dynamic, Maceration avoids the unnecessary experimentation, the flawless aggression of the songs, and the tendency to sound brutal shows the qualities in the guitar department. Jan Bergmann Jepsen’s role in the album is crucial, and he brings his best performances, undeniably the drums pummels you in the guts and the bass guitar is very thick and flawlessly goes well with the riffing madness.

“The Suffering” is one of my favorite songs, noteworthy for the guitar arrangements and the thumping bass lines are just brilliant and showcasing Maceration’s old-school savagery. The method of riffing is very Swedish and there are some similarities to the band Demonical.

With plenty of twisting riffs, unleashing powerful tempos across the thirty-nine minutes of pure death metal mayhem. Maceration’s brutal schooling in the third album demonstrates the skills of these veterans, the drums kick off and guitars foray into an onslaught, and the slower tempos are full of hooks.

In “Emptiness Embraced” and “When Torment Befell My Pain”, the drums hit at full throttle. The ongoing battering of the drums pushes the intensity of the songs, and the slow bulldozing transitions are distinctive. The album’s production is raw, this is because the riffing adds more of a variety to it.

“In Rot Unleashed” bludgeons the fuck out of you and the guitars maintain the fast dynamics, the guitars touch everything from the Swedish death metal hallmarks like Entombed and Dismember. The fast grinding sections are contagious with its guitar barrages, and pummeling double bass drums erupts, and the lead guitar section gives some diversity to the song.

The cover art which features a monstrous Chthulu like image paints a gruesome theme in the song “Revolt the Tyrant Dream”. Unlike the sophomore “It Never Ends…” which was somewhat atmospheric, Maceration keeps things as straight forwards as possible. The album draws a fine line between aggressive and brutal death metal on a professional musical level. The guitars in the final song, “For the End Alone” is melodic, showing how Maceration likes to apply its old-school formula to the guitar effects, the mixing of grooves and the slow doom sections is just brilliant.

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