A new stage for Cabal.
2025 marks the year of release for Chris Kreutzfeldt (guitar), Andreas Paarup (vocals), Arsalan Sahki (guitar), Malthe Sorensen (bass) and Nikolaj Kaae Kirk (drums) of their fourth album, Everything Rots, second on Nuclear Blast.
Become Nothing strikes first with an abrasive sound used first on its own, then with menacing strikes, and finally Andreas‘s menacing ranting at a slow pace, which accelerates as soon as Redemption Denied begins. The backing vocals reinforce the composition’s aggressiveness with its crushing jerky riffs, which turn into a dark groove with Everything Rots, where the oppressive Beatdown roots are fully exploited to intensify the chaos. Jamie Graham (Viscera) joins the Danes for No Peace, where the rhythm section once again unleashes its unrestrained brutality, albeit with a few more majestic passages, before resuming with the catchy Hellhounds, which maintains this violent energetic approach. We continue in the company of Aaron Matts (Ten56, ex-Betraying the Martyrs) on Still Cursed, whose apocalyptic riffing is complemented by noisy touches, before Matthias “Matthi” Tarnath of Nasty takes his place on Unveiled, with its vindictive hardcore patterns that hold great promise for live performances. The introduction of Forever Marked allows us to regain our composure before re-entering the pit to pummel us at a respectable pace under Electro sounds, then End Times returns to the basics of violence by dropping simple but extremely effective riffs. The band of course adds its heady samples, which continue on Snake Tongues with a similar approach at first, then clearly adopting the codes of violent Electro before blending the two. Joel Holmqvist (Aviana) comes in for Stuck, where the catchy patterns multiply and even become relatively unifying, before moving towards pure heaviness on Beneath Blackend Skies, where Distant vocalist Alan Grnja appears to give the break an even darker and heavier touch. The last surprise is Sort Sommer, where Fabräk closes the album with a touch of Rap and Deathcore, creating a mixture that is relatively strange but ultimately quite consistent with the band’s universe.
Cabal has no limits when it comes to creating heavy riffs and enhancing them with oppressive touches, Everything Rots being a perfect example! The band now has even more ways of setting pits on fire with this new album.
90/100