Ancient Death: Ego Dissolution (2025)
Even with my intermittent and undisciplined modern-day music discovery process (a far cry from the almost scientific assiduousness of my youth), it was easy to see that Ancient Death's Ego Dissolution was one of the most frequently praised heavy metal releases of 2025.
And when I gazed upon the eyeball-smothered, otherwordly wonder of its cover art (*) I was assaulted by fond memories of Sepultura's Arise, Obituary's Cause of Death, and other classic death metal albums, and pretty much sold before I heard a single note.
But I wasn't disappointed once I did, because this retro-minded quartet from Walpole, MA's consistently backed up their aesthetically-nostalgic imagery with an equally period-correct blend of OSDM (Old School Death Metal) influences.
Uh, they ARE called Ancient Death, after all!
After forming in 2021, vocalist/guitarist Jerry Witunsky (**), guitarist Ray Brouwer, bassist/vocalist Jasmine Alexander, and drummer Derek Moniz dropped a few singles and an EP to hone their sound, but waited until last year to record this, their first long-player.
It was produced with analog authenticity by Seth Manchester (not yet known for his work with a bunch of bands you've barely heard of) at Pawtucket, RI's Machines with Magnets studio; but if you'd told me it had been recorded by Scott Burns at Tampa's Morrisound, instead, I might have bought that.
For, you see, in Ancient Death's carefully constructed '90s simulacrum, bestial brutality and semi-progressive structures balance to perfection on the title track, "Breaking the Barriers of Hope," and "Violet Light Decays" evoking globally-widespread forerunners like Death, Edge of Sanity, Sepultura, and Entombed.
And because sinister melodies and Alexander's breathy, ethereal goth vocals are generously distributed among these violent death metal trademarks and Witunsky's Cookie Monster growls, long-winded, esoteric fare like "Breathe - Transcend (Into the Glowing Streams of Forever)" and "Echoing Chambers Within the Dismal Mind" is as accessible as death metal gets.
Even the album's two instrumentals, "Journey to the Inner Soul" and "Discarnate," are very well-crafted and nicely complement (along with another highlight, "Unspoken Oath") an album that, albeit on the short side (just 35 minutes), is consistently engaging, as advertised.
And yet, I fear my natural attraction to Ego Dissolution may rely on familiarity and a sentimental hankering for the days when "old school death metal" was "fresh groundbreaking death metal," and that my enthusiasm may fade once I rack this record with 3,000 more.
But we'll see about that, and don't let this closing misgiving dampen my preceding endorsement of Ancient Death's debut, which still ranks among the best metal albums of any stripe that I heard in 2025.
* Designed by the talented Maegan LeMay.
** Witunsky also performs live with the current formation of death/jazz iconoclasts Atheist.
More Third Millennium Metal: 3 Inches of Blood’s Battlecry Under a Winter Sun, Baroness’ Red Album, Behold! The Monolith’s Defender/Redeemist, Bison B.C.’s Dark Ages, Black Cobra’s Feather and Stone, Blood Incantation's Absolute Elsewhere, Blood of Kingu's Sun in the House of the Scorpion, Blue Aside’s The White Staff Burned by the Blue Sun, Bütcher’s 666 Goats Carry My Chariot, Deftones’ White Pony, Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone, Ghastly’s Mercurial Passages, God Dethroned’s The Toxic Touch, Hedonist’s Scapulimancy, High On Fire’s Surrounded by Thieves, Inter Arma’s Paradise Gallows, Into Eternity’s The Scattering of Ashes, Isen Torr’s Mighty & Superior EP, Killswitch Engage’s Alive or Just Breathing, Lacuna Coil’s Karmacode, Lair of the Minotaur’s The Ultimate Destroyer, Lamb of God’s Ashes of the Wake, Mastodon’s Leviathan, Oranssi Pazuzu’s Valonielu, Power Trip’s Nightmare Logic, Rwake’s Rest, Saviours’ Into Abaddon, Skeletonwitch’s Beyond the Permafrost, Solothus’ Realm of Ash and Blood, Spectral Voice’s Eroded Corridors of Unbeing, The Sword’s Age of Winters, System of a Down’s Toxicity, Tool’s Lateralus, Trivium’s Ascendancy, Ulthar’s Cosmovore, Unearthly Trance’s In the Red, Vattnet Viskar’s Settler, Vektor’s Terminal Redux, Warbringer’s War Without End, Witch Vomit’s Funeral Sanctum, Zemial’s Nykta.
