MOLDER - Catastrophic Reconfiguration (CASSETTE)

From the very first riff, it's clear Molder isn’t concerned with modern polish — this is death metal dredged from the shallow graves of the early '90s, embalmed in grime and twitching with old-school energy. Where 2022’s Engrossed in Decay celebrated the slow beauty of decomposition, Catastrophic Reconfiguration is a far more animated corpse. It thrashes, it rips, it coughs up clouds of fungal spores and rides the slime trail straight through your speakers.

Vocalist/guitarist Aaren Pantke leads the charge with renewed venom, balancing guttural incantations with riffs that blur the line between Autopsy-worship and Repulsion-style frenzy. The production is thick and organic — not clean, but smeared — lending each track a damp, suffocating weight that perfectly complements the band’s obsession with bodily collapse and microbial menace.

But don’t mistake grime for sloppiness — Molder know exactly what they’re doing. Beneath the ooze lies some impressively tight playing, especially when they lean into their thrashier instincts. This is total thrashing death for real headbanging mutants — equal parts knuckle-dragging and neck-snapping.

Catastrophic Reconfiguration isn’t reinventing anything, but that’s the point. It’s a love letter to the still-rotting corpse of true death metal — crude, nasty, and blissfully brain-dead in all the right ways.

Recommended if you like: Autopsy, Mortuous, Obituary, Repulsion, Skeletal Remains