Photo by Kate M.
Ireland’s MALTHUSIAN unearths their deathly opus, The Summoning Bell, today via Relapse Records!
On The Summoning Bell, MALTHUSIAN‘s fetid hallmarks are ever present: truly unforgiving, unrelenting death metal. Swirling chords and ominous cymbal swells give way to the band’s opener “Red, Waiting.” What follows is a flurry of murk and madness – blastbeats pummel against churns of distortion. The sonic atmosphere cultivated by MALTHUSIAN‘s palpable fury is suffocating; each riff carefully crafted to push and pull on the momentum behind their music. The Summoning Bell is undeniably a pitch-black take on the genre.
The Summoning Bell is a lighting of the pyre – each of the album’s tracks explore themes of true nothingness, condemnations of superstition, and a profound descent into darkness and time. The end result is a record that seemingly reconciles with a dimming – internal and external, a true end of everything.
Stream MALTHUSIAN’s The Summoning Bell HERE.
Watch MALTHUSIAN’s video for “The Summoning Bell,” directed by Ray K Media, HERE.
The Summoning Bell is available on 2xLP, CD, and digital formats. Find orders at Relapse.com HERE and listen on all streaming services HERE.
MALTHUSIAN Live:
11/07/2025 Lost Lane – Dublin, IE
11/13-15/2025 Ascension Festival – Hlégarður, IS
MALTHUSIAN:
MB – guitar, vocals
TMK – guitar
FB – bass
JK – drums
“MATHUSIAN‘s chaotic blackened death metal is more naturalistic than that of a band like Portal or Teitanblood – recalling torrential rain on weathered stone, mud swirlin below, Bree bellowing from a rapidly flowing crypt – though no less infernal. At it’s tripped out best, [The Summoning Bell] reimagines Perpetual Hanneman/King lead tradeoffs as death metal songs, and births way more earworms than this stuff usually does.” – Decibel Magazine
“…one of the more gripping death metal albums I’ve heard this year.” – Everything Is Noise
“Prepare for: dismal, dissonant, yet also wickedly delirious and spasmodically deranged fretwork, avalanche drums (which also fire like weaponry), monstrously abyssal gutturals, and screeching howls.” – Nine Circles
Cover art by Mitchell Nolte
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