Pharmacist — Vertebrae after Vertebrae (Hells Headbangers)
Japan-based band Pharmacist continues their transition from purveyors of degenerate goregrind to a more song-oriented variety of death metal. For evidence of the process, you might contrast “Gastronomic Spoiled Courage,” from Pharmacist’s first LP Medical Renditions of Grinding Decomposition (2020), with pretty much any track from Vertebrae after Vertebrae. What you make of the relevant changes might depend on just how domesticated — or at least somewhat open to casual listeners — you want death metal to be. This reviewer is mostly agnostic on that issue. Death metal tends to police its own boundaries — with the exception of so-called “atmospheric death metal” entities like Dream Unending, who include “death metal” among their Bandcamp tags but whose music sounds like Styx, c 1978, with an unpleasant head cold.
