Fetid Zombie is out with its first full-length album in five years, Transmutations.

The driving force behind Fetid Zombie is Mark Riddick. In 2016, he/the band released Epicedia, an exploratory album with four long tracks that trod every land of heavy music. Since then, there have been many splits and EPs, which is a hallmark of Riddick’s work. Transmutations is the seventh long-player under the Fetid Zombie banner.

Riddick has invited a long list of musicians to join him on the new album including Ralf Hauber (Heads For The Dead), Chris Monroy (Skeletal Remains), Clare Webster (Yylva), Josh Fleischer (Svierg), Jamie Whyte (Beyond Mortal Dreams), James Malone (Arsis), Malcolm Pugh (Inferi), and Toby Knapp (Affliktor, Waxen). The result of this incredible variety of influences is a lush album that crosses multiple borders of heavy music and generates a synergistic whole.

Across six tracks you hear classic metal transforming into death metal and then heavy prog melding with searing dark entropy and more. The variety of the landscape is astonishing in every song. The opener, for example, “Chrysopoeia,” is an eight minute epic with growling death metal vocals, riffs that would be at home in classic heavy metal albums from the eighties, disembodied ethereal voices howling from the void, melodic guitar leads, space prog, and too many other elements to count. It is a grand quest.

Every song has its own environment and infrastructure that makes it unique. With all the seemingly disparate pieces floating around you might worry that this is a confusing basket of everything, but that is not what comes across at all. Each song is carefully constructed to fit together perfectly and the musicians perform expertly throughout. I can’t think of anything to compare it to directly. You have to hear it for yourself. Recommended.

Transmutations is out now from Transcending Obscurity. You can find it in the usual places including Bandcamp and the label’s US store.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://fetidzombiedm.bandcamp.com/album/transmutations-death-metal

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/fetidzombie

Transcending Obscurity, https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/