Review: “What Dwells Below” by Throne Of Roaches

An eerie, haunting introduction gives life to title track “What Dwells Below” building that sense that something wicked this way comes as the drums begin to pound. That swiftly transcends into a whirlwind of percussive battery with blast beats and fierce vocals as the band go hell for leather during a brutal first verse of Blackened Death Metal before seamlessly transitioning into and out of a Melodic Death Metal bridge. A spellbinding almost Obscura like extended solo adds a warmth to savageness, the contrasting textures of the sonic abrasions making the opener as potent as you’d hope. The razor sharp Death Metal riffs of “Cosmic Confinement” remind of bands like Orbit Culture as Throne of Roaches beat the discerning listener into submission with bursts of blast beats and harsh vocals making you want to wreck your neck on the first listen. None of the electrifying energy of the piece is lost during a fleeting melodic break either, something which leads to a longer instrumental passage that works incredibly well. Impressively the song stops on a dime immediately after a huge crescendo, Lindström’s monstrous vocals left ringing in the ears.

There is an almost ethnic quality to a programmed bridge during the vicious “Blood-Soaked Sand“, a song which pays out malicious intent while continuing the perpetual forward motion of the record. It’s clean that the band have refined their sound over the past three years and have a better grasp of what they want to sound like, the blood and thunder percussion of this one a lethal dose of Swedish hatred. Their atmospherics have been polished too, the dark, sinister and menacing “Right Through the Skull” a fine example as Lindström moves between a barked death growl and a shriller voice to create contrast in the vocals, this brutal roars an essential part of what makes this one so great. “A Fate Far Worse Than Death” has a dark majesty to it as the continue to crush skulls with their bare hands, Störholt offering another master class from behind the kit as the groove laden guitars drive the nails into the coffins of the naysayers. A record surrounded in perpetual darkness that you don’t want to come to an end, this one ensures the future for Throne Of Roaches remains so bright it burns [8/10]

1. What Dwells Below

2. Cosmic Confinement

3. Blood-Soaked Sand

4. Right Through the Skull

5. A Fate Far Worse Than Death

“What Dwells Below” by Throne Of Roaches is out 2nd October 2026 and maybe available over at bandcamp