{"id":106154,"date":"2026-06-26T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=106154"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:13:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:13:34","slug":"album-review-astriferous-atavistic-unraveling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-astriferous-atavistic-unraveling\/","title":{"rendered":"ASTRIFEROUS – Atavistic Unraveling (2026) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASTRIFEROUS
\nAtavistic Unraveling<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMe Saco Un Ojo \/ Pulverised (2026)<\/span>
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been waiting for these deathly Costa Rican\u2019s to make an impact on the scene, especially since their debut opus Pulsations Of The Black Orb<\/em><\/a> (2023) which caused a bit of a stir. Atavistic Unraveling<\/em> is the next natural step for Astriferous and is another intriguing and absorbing web constructed of gnashing riffs and aggressive vocal smears. This is maelstrom death metal, a blitzkrieg that taps into the same vortex occupied by forefathers Morbid Angel and Incantation.<\/p>\n

Dense, occasionally jagged, but always babbling with a ferocious and slightly unorthodox persona, Atavistic Unraveling<\/em> crams in an awful lot of bluster to its 36 minute time frame. Some straight forward bludgeoning seems quite content to exist alongside a more jarring presence to result in a tangled, often unrelenting smorgasbord which begins its frightful journey with \u2018Carriers Of The Curse\u2019, a literal lashing of cosmic bludgeoning propelled by gruff vocal strikes and percussion that to this day echoes through otherworldly hellscapes.<\/p>\n

The backbone of the album is those skin blasts; apocalyptic hammers which excel during those faster rushes of cold air. They bring extra depth and density to Astriferous sound, layering the crushing axe work with jabs of horror. \u2018The Floating Catacombs\u2019 follows with more sepulchre dynamics as the madmen construct a furnace of gnashing, churning power, led further into the maelstrom by a snarling vocal assault.<\/p>\n

I listened to each track several times, spending time with such episodes before moving on to the next barbaric attack. Strangely, there\u2019s nothing overly disconcerting or evil about the sound of the band, the guys just get down to business with those toiling riffs and colder cauldrons of mayhem. There\u2019s a lot of melody on offer too, and thankfully the subtleties are never obscured by the cosmic compost of the cascading riffs. I don\u2019t know what \u2018Arcane Demonomania\u2019 is, but it\u2019s a musical tour de force bristling with thundering drums as the pace smoothly shifts gears.<\/p>\n

Astriferous don\u2019t necessarily require permanent full on aggression to achieve their goal, instead, they exist within a plateau of consistent compacted grinding. Closing cut \u2018Resonance Cascade\u2019 steadily churns and gyrates, foaming from within its tumultuous interplay of riffs and percussion. The album cover art is somewhat indicative of the busy soundtrack contained herein, Astriferous somehow atmospheric and complex yet without fully displaying either characteristic.<\/p>\n

There are no peculiarities leaking from this abyss, but its structural ingredients ensure that its audience are well and truly engulfed. Atavistic Unraveling<\/em> prompted me to envisage a planet occupied only by black rolling ocean waves and soil coloured foliage constructed of tentacles. Make of that what you will.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ASTRIFEROUS Atavistic Unraveling Me Saco Un Ojo \/ Pulverised (2026) Rating: 8\/10 I\u2019ve been waiting for these deathly Costa Rican\u2019s to make an impact on the scene, especially since their debut opus Pulsations Of The Black Orb (2023) which caused a bit of a stir. Atavistic Unraveling is the next natural step for Astriferous and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5248],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-astriferous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106156,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106154\/revisions\/106156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}