“Inward to Gethsemane,” the insanely great fifth record from Vastum, revels in mental and physical torture, and while much of the death metal circle is fairly Christ hating, this album aligns with his suffering and death in a way you might not expect. They’re also not exactly lining up for communion, in case that freaked you out. If you were anticipating psychological sexual tortures and pain, yeah, that’s also here in spades as this band—vocalist Daniel Butler, vocalist/guitarist/synth player Leila Abdul Rauf, guitarist Shelby Lermo, bassist Colin Tarvin, drummer Chad Gailey—has made a practice out of exploring those terrifying corners of reality. But this record also leans into bodily torture one cannot just ask out of, not unlike Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane before his bloody journey to Golgotha, a sacrifice made for all humanity via a tortuous death.

“In Bed With Death” opens in a strange aura as the guitars get started, warped riffs tangling you with psychosis. The power stomps as the shrieks menace, Butler and Rauf trading off lines, leaving steaming bruising. “Free from maternal boundary violations, spilling seeds, burdened by ancient pain that gestate inside her,” carves into your brain as the playing comes unglued, the carnage leaving you nauseated. “Priapic Chasms” smears, the pace mashing, deep growls digging into your entrails. The guitars smoke and then deface, beastly howls crash down and leave permanent scarring, and then the playing blinds you, zapping and punishing, mangling flesh.

“Vomitous (in the Agony Garden)” chugs and lurches, the growling splattering, the call of, “Sprawled, my agony!” making psychological trauma that much deeper. The playing combusts as the bludgeoning gets meaner, the howl of, “Sprawling, can’t stop subjecting myself to your finger inside my eye, feeling emetic, in distress, can’t stop vomiting,” a sight you can’t unsee in your mind, the heat becoming unbearable. I think this is my favorite track here, perhaps because I can’t remove the cries of, “In agony!” from my vulnerable brain. “Corpus Fractum” is the eight-minute closer, a dose of pure fright, ferocious vocals, and immersive guitars combining to take you down. “I will be in agony until the end of the world, there must be no sleeping during this time, spiritual insomnia, my ego is blurred, I’m high on the cross, so high I’m blind,” digs into Christ-like psychosis, a hypnotic haze wrapping around the punishment, brutally striking back on multiple human levels. Vastum always have been an intense, mentally barbaric, musically twisted band, but this fifth record pushes them even further into madness, scraping away at psychological faculties that already were in question. It’s also the best death metal record of the year. (Nov. 10)

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