Album Review – Vomitory / All Heads Are Gonna Roll (2023)

All heads are gonna roll to the sound of the infuriated new album by one of the most important and violent bands in the history of Death Metal.

In any serious conversation about Death Metal, the name Vomitory has to come up. Since their inception in the Swedish city of Karlstad back in 1989, the band has been dropping blistering Death Metal albums that are among the most visceral the genre has ever spewed up, and that’s also the case with their brand new opus, beautifully titled All Heads Are Gonna Roll, the ninth full-length opus in their career and their first since their 2011 release Opus Mortis VIII. Recorded by Mats Lindström at Studio Bunker Z16 and by Rikard Löfgren at Leon Music Studio, mixed and mastered by Lawrence Mackrory at Rorysound Studios, and displaying a sick artwork by Giannis Nakos of Rem3dy Art Design, the album sounds absolutely brutal and relentless, with its lyrics coming from a familiar place, focusing on violence, murder, war, gore, zombies, monsters, anti-religion and so on while always drawing inspiration from movies, books and TV, showcasing the passion for extreme music by vocalist and bassist Erik Rundqvist, guitarists Peter Östlund and Urban Gustafsson, and drummer Tobias Gustafsson and, therefore, resulting in an album that is the whole package for Death Metal fans, a stunning return to form after so many years between releases.

It’s total chaos and rage form the very first second in the Death Metal hymn All Heads Are Gonna Roll, with Tobias kicking some serious ass behind his drums while Erik barks the song’s acid lyrics manically, whereas as furious and demented as the opening tune, the circle pit generator Decrowned will assault your senses spearheaded by the classic riffs by Peter and Urban; followed by Ode to the Meat Saw, another headbanging extravaganza by our unstoppable Swedish quartet where the heaviness flowing from Urban’s bass is insane, accompanied by the rhythmic but at the same time wicked beats by Tobias. Even more frantic and enraged than its predecessors, The Deepest Tomb is a lecture in old school Scandinavian Death Metal where Erik keeps roaring like a beast until the very end, while Piece by Stinking Piece sounds as heavy and piercing as it can be, with the hammering drums by Tobias walking hand in hand with the bestial growling by Erik.

In the pulverizing Raped, Strangled, Sodomized, Dead the lyrics reek of Death Metal (“Perverted cruelty, stalking the prey / In for the kill, reincarnated sin / Kill, devour, a beast of man / Savage hunter, a morbid taste for blood”) while the music is flawless, sick and putrid just the way we all love it, and in Dead Man Stalking the unstoppable Erik keep gnarling more of their acid words (“A shade reborn from hate, reborn from agony / Covered in sore, pus and infected blisters / Deformed entity, lurking in the shadows / Transforming into a corpse of rotten flesh”) amidst a demonic sonority. The quartet brings their heavy artillery to life in Disciples of the Damned, smashing our cranial skulls mercilessly while Erik vociferates rabidly and Peter fires some sharp, strident solos for our total delight. Vomitory’s Death Metal attack goes on in full force in Dead World, where the riffs and solos by Peter and Urban will pierce your minds in the name of extreme music, while lastly the band enhances their obscurity in Beg for Death, offering a heavy-as-hell feast of Death Metal that will leave your head trembling after all is said and done.

Vomitory’s newborn beast can be appreciated in all of its glory on YouTube and on Spotify, but of course if you consider yourself a true servant of old school Death Metal you can purchase a copy of such incendiary album by clicking HERE or HERE, and also follow the quartet on Facebook and on Instagram for more of their music and to keep an eye on when the band will take your city by storm. It might have taken 12 years for Vomitory to release a new album, but the wait was totally worth it as All Heads Are Gonna Roll is undoubtedly one of the strongest albums of the year not only in Death Metal, but in heavy music in general, and may all heads keep on rolling to the sound of the demented music by those Swedish veterans for many years to come.

Best moments of the album: All Heads Are Gonna Roll, Ode to the Meat Saw, Raped, Strangled, Sodomized, Dead and Disciples of the Damned.

Worst moments of the album: None.

Released in 2023 Metal Blade Records

Track listing
1. All Heads Are Gonna Roll 3:27
2. Decrowned 3:27
3. Ode to the Meat Saw 4:44
4. The Deepest Tomb 4:28
5. Piece by Stinking Piece 3:23
6. Raped, Strangled, Sodomized, Dead 3:19
7. Dead Man Stalking 4:48
8. Disciples of the Damned 3:29
9. Dead World 4:06
10. Beg for Death 5:34

Japanese Edition bonus tracks
11. Chaos Fury (Live 2013) 3:24
12. Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize (Live 2013) 4:05

Band members
Erik Rundqvist – vocals, bass
Peter Östlund – lead guitars
Urban Gustafsson – guitars
Tobias Gustafsson – drums

Guest musician
Christian Fredriksson – lead guitars (session)