MONSTROSITY – Screams From Beneath The Surface (Album Review)

Another monstrous reinvention emerges.

Though perhaps best known as the band that originally put Cannibal Corpse front man George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher on the map and often overshadowed by their more prolific and fellow Florida-based contemporaries, Monstrosity is a band that captures the highly otherworldly character of death metal in its purest form.

The respective niches and gimmicks of unrelenting gore, blasphemy, and occult themes that are often presented to cartoonish degrees by the aforementioned Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, and Morbid Angel are generally tempered in favor of a more abstract and all-encompassing darkness, perhaps best explained as a versatile beast that can assume whatever form of horror it wishes.

Now just shy of six years to the day that their 2018 opus The Passage Of Existence answered an extended period of studio silence with an old school masterwork, their seventh LP Screams From Beneath The Surface accomplishes a similar feat with a fairly different aesthetic.

The arrival of this latest studio excursion, much like the previous six, lands with a couple of highly consequential shifts in the band’s lineup. The most pivotal of changes is the exodus of vocalist Mike Hrubovcak and the entry of one-time Massacre frontman Ed Webb, whose guttural barks and ravings aren’t a massive departure from his predecessor’s diabolical grunts, but prove slightly more nimble and closer to the original standard set by Fisher back in the early to mid 1990s.

Then again, the concurrent exit of guitarist Mark English and acquisition of scene newcomer Justin Walker to cut heads with Matt Barnes has resulted in an even more technically extravagant and melodically rich tapestry of terror being painted, making for an equally chaotic yet more melancholic experience. Top it all off with the return of long-absent bassist and co-founder Mark Van Erp to the fold with his glassy, virtuosic high-jinks to rival Alex Webster on his best day, and the rapid-fire auditory violence from behind the kit courtesy of Lee Harrison, and a seamless link to the formative glory of 1992’s Imperial Doom becomes impossible to miss.

While what this 10-chapter sonic codex of rage doesn’t outright cross the threshold that separates the old school sound from modern subsets of melodic and technical death metal, the building blocks to what birthed those later 90s styles are on full display. Following a brief ambient exposition of dreary keyboards and droning clean guitars, “Banished To The Skies” lands like a primal sledgehammer, showcasing the chops of every instrumentalist involved while also evoking a sense of nostalgia for the epic and multifaceted exploits that death metal regularly unleashed before any orthodoxy was established.

About the only drawback is that this extravagant first offering and the subsequent third entry, “The Atrophied,” in all its tech and blast-happy glory, stand on top of an impressive fray and all but catch the band hitting their apex point prematurely. Then again, the more consistently explosive character of shorter, thrash-infused crushers like “The Colossal Rage” and the chaotic fit of frenzied riff work and noodling bass majesty of “Spiral” hit so hard that even a seasoned death metal enthusiast might find himself knocked on his proverbial ass.

From one song to the next, it becomes clear that Monstrosity’s versatility continues to be their most distinctive feature, and it pays massive dividends at every point. The bone-crushing fits and starts of “Thorns” are painted over with a fluttering gloss of wild lead guitar breaks and a mystical atmospheric flavor that almost feels like an early 90s forerunner to Nile’s brand of brutality in a punchier 2020s package, meanwhile the overtly Middle Eastern-tinged and keyboard-steeped stomp of “The Dark Aura” could almost be a direct nod to the death metal Egyptologists from Greenville.

Compact and chaotic beasts like “Vapors” and “Blood Works” come with the most overtly old school death metal stylings, yet are so insanely busy and extravagant at every point that it effectively blurs the lines between the mad technical noodling of early Suffocation and the early progressive strides of Death’s middle era.

The closing hurrah of “Veil Of Disillusion” essentially compresses everything already encountered into one towering mass of exotic, technically charged mayhem, topped off with some of the most spellbinding guitar solo work since Death’s Individual Thought Patterns, and sees Webb deliver the most ferocious performance of the entire album.

For one of the original pioneers of the Florida scene that has been consistently plugging away in the death metal underground for just over 35 years, Monstrosity might have had more lineup shifts than they’ve had studio albums, but this is an institution where quality trumps quantity.

Much like their more prolific fellow travelers, Malevolent Creation, they’ve walked an interesting middle ground between the technical, brutal, and melodic strains that have subsequently cropped up without being drawn out of their old school sound, though they’ve definitely proven more adaptive in recent years.

Those who have been enamored with the Florida sound since its late 80s birth and younger trustees that may have been introduced to it via revival acts like Gruesome and Skeletal Remains will find a mighty tree of death still firmly rooted in the traditions that they love, but one with branches that spread farther out and touch upon more intricate territory.

Release Date: March 13th, 2026
Record Label: Metal Blade Records
Genre: Death Metal

Musicians:

• Ed Webb / Vocals
• Justin Walker / Guitars
• Matt Barnes / Guitars
• Mark Van Erp / Bass
• Lee Harrison / Drums

Screams From Beneath The Surface Tracklist:

1. Banished to the Skies
2. The Colossal Rage
3. The Atrophied
4. Spiral
5. Fortunes Engraved in Blood
6. Vapors
7. The Thorns
8. Blood Works
9. The Dark Aura
10. Veil of Disillusion

Order the album here.