The best present-day death metal tends to fall into one of two camps: forward-thinking avant-gardists (Gorguts, Morbus Chron) or old-school gods resurrected (Carcass, At The Gates). Horrendous are neither of those things: They’re a young American band playing in a traditionalist subgenre — they’re revisiting the buzzing, ultra-catchy style of old Swedish greats like Entombed and Dismember — but their second LP, Ecydysis, merely uses that as bedrock on which to build a new city. Actually, “new” is probably the wrong word: Ecydysis feels well-worn, soulful even, but unlike most Swedeath revivalists, it complicates those crushing riffs and that intoxicating guitar tone with textures, structures, dynamics, and melodies that recall nothing so much as Metallica circa Ride The Lightning. Ecydysis doesn’t just raise the stakes and standards for everyone else in the game; it’s a modern classic. –Michael [LISTEN]