The world is ensconced in chaos. War is breaking out, and a few too many people are only too happy to stump for genocide when it involves people who don’t look and worship like them. It’s enough to eat away at whatever mental well-being you’ve managed to build up, and that’s not even scratching the surface of all of the other hell constantly surrounding us.

Canadian bestial death metal squad Ceremonial Bloodbath aren’t necessarily zeroing in on those matters on their hellacious second record “Genesis of Malignant Entropy,” but the sounds that overwhelm on this crusher easily equal the war going on inside your head. The band—vocalist/guitarist DM, guitarist GC, bassist Adam Sorry, drummer AC—is in total obliteration mode here, torching everything in front of us with their brand of merciless death metal that also makes it feel like your mind is swirling inside your skull. These songs sound like fodder for waging your own war against the societal forces that continue to sicken us and those who are behind these campaigns to sow division with misinformation. This record isn’t here to give you slick, catchy metal that fills giant rooms. This is ash-mashed, suffocating, unforgiving madness that grabs a stranglehold from the start and doesn’t give up until they’re satisfied with the punishment they dealt.

“The Ritual of Unholy Descent” is an eerie opening instrumental track that is chilling, terror surrounding you, and then we’re headed into “Exhumation of the Ominous” that explodes like an infernal gust. Violent chaos blisters as the playing decimates, and even the melodies woven into this madness can’t make anything feel brighter. The leads scorch as damaging power multiplies, mashing mercilessly all the way to the finish. “Bloodlust Raids of Vengeance” is blinding, gutting you with violence, the vicious turmoil taking over every cell in your body. The leads burn as the humidity gets thicker, the playing turns up the intensity, and the growls are belched, the tormented pace slaying and beating flesh and muscle into the ground. “The Boneless One” brings a flurry of guitars and a mucky onslaught, the playing dizzying and thrashing as you try aimlessly to get your footing. The track practically hemorrhages chaos, scraping as the leads scathe, the soloing blazes, and vile growls team with rattling power to send skeletal structures into immediate trauma. “Loathing Swarm” has guitars lathering with foamy blood, a skull-splitting attack taking you under and smothering. The playing trudges as the smoke accumulates and chokes lungs, and a brief respite from the madness results in a blazing force that melts faces.

“Caustic Invocation” is doomy when it starts, stomping over prone bodies as the guitars multiply the heat, spiraling and making the room spin out of control. A deep sorrow exists beneath the bloodthirsty devastation, the carnage increases and rampages, blasting out and burying your face in ash. “Dissonance of Morbidity” swims in deep nuclear waste, attacking as riffs spiral, and the harshness adds a horrific gravity to what you’re hearing. The guitars stretch as they continue to make your body pay the price, torturing and turning, amplifying the terror in ways that spike your anxiety. “Mutilation of Sacrifice” starts with growls that feel scraped from deep inside the guts, a brutal force spitting shrapnel and trying to bury the sparks into eye sockets. Things continue to get morbidly devastating, the leads swarm, and the growls incinerate, laying waste and leaving only torched blood behind. Closer “The Invocation of the Tomb of Mankind” is a strange instrumental, a bizarre aura that feels drawn from alien dimensions, immersing you in a sheen that tests you psychologically, the synth waves lapping into psychosis, swept away in a storm of toxic winds.

“Genesis of Malignant Entropy” is a record that is not for the weak hearted, a deathly explosion that consumes you mind and body, unhinging any psychological health you’ve managed to cobble together. Ceremonial Bloodbath leave no time for a breath, zero chances to avoid their wrath, and a mammoth-sized display that’s as beastly as they come, proving death metal still has a lust for carnage. This is unsettling heavy, an album that makes you feel like you’ve been through a physical, mental battle that you’re not sure you survived when the final notes strangle their last.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/ceremonialbloodbath

To buy the album, go here: https://sentientruin.com/releases/ceremonial-bloodbath-genesis-of-malignant-entropy

For more on the label, go here: https://sentientruin.com/