The unholy vision of Italian splatter maestro Lucio Fulci lives, gutturally reanimated by the perpetual death machine, Rogga Johansson. HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY returns with their third full-length, “Disturbing The Cenotaph”. This international trio of Rogga Johansson (guitars, bass) with drummer Thomas Ohlsson (ex – THE PROJECT HATE) and vocalist Mike Hrubovcak (AZURE EMOTE, IMPERIAL CRYSTALLINE ENTOMBMENT, ex – MONSTROSITY) holds an inexhaustible reservoir of creating feral, low-fi carnage Death Metal which is forged in solid old school style and aesthetics. And now paid a gruesome tribute to the 1981 cult horror film “House By The Cemetery”. The release comes with eight tracks and first with the artwork and then by the track names, arouses instantaneous curiosity. The lyrical structure penned by Hrubovcak, felt like a grim social commentary of depravity and real life atrocity in disguise of horror and dread. While tracks like ‘Undead Apocalypse’ and ‘Burial Disturbance’ honor Fulci and influences like “Night Of The Living Dead”, others venture into darker corners. ‘Coffin Colony’ details a rabid, rat eating derelict being forsaken and ‘Lunatic Butcher’ is chillingly inspired by the brutal murders of Paul John Knowles, the “Casanova Killer”. As Johansson asserts: “This album is HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY on steroids. The sound is wide and godless, the vocals are fantastic and the hard riffing, interwoven with occasional melodies, makes for an overall varied, entertaining and bloody listening experience.” The sepulchral of opener ‘New York Ripper’ immediately authorizes the statement. Interestingly and surprisingly enough, this is not the typical Swedish D-beat pounding one might expect; instead, what awaits are deadly, battering compositions laced with desolate, gut wrenching melodies and classic horror intimidation. ‘Coffin Colony’ follows with spine chilling tremolo along with rib shattering and mind freezing growls, something that dominates throughout the record. This is textbook old school Death Metal arrangement, surgically avoiding cliché with breaks and tempo shifts designed to leave necks perpetually sore, yet craving the next cut. The most notable and enjoyable evolution is the variation in pacing, ensuring high memorability over sheer endurance. Tracks like ‘Island Of The Dead’ and ‘Depraved Unspeakable Acts’ build an atmosphere that remains circling inside the head. ‘Massive Cadaver Resurrection’ is another crushing course of hooks and grooves, a future live favorite for headbanging maniacs. It’s also saying about when you release almost every year for decades, then possibly the only unease can be about memorability. Rogga, now approaching elder age, must have thought about that. The later track ‘Undead Apocalypse’ keeps this feeling alive, offering a forlorn, slow death like intro by allowing Mike’s agonizing deep growls to erupt like long slumbering volcanic lava supported by a heavy, thick bassline that truly calls on impending catastrophe. This just over 30 minute madness concludes with ‘Lunatic Butcher’, where Rogga and Co. hold the knife to the throat like some determined raiders. It’s slow, oppressive and fearsome. The riffs dominate and the vocals create his own fear factor. Nothing complicated or technically presented, just material that sounds aggressive and desolate, with great melodies. It is less about speed and more about sustained threat. Being influenced by a true story, when I understood it correctly, this gets utterly fearsome to think and endure. Aided impressively by a clinical horror heavy production “Disturbing The Cenotaph” sounds like a horror show, with the ever-growing comradery of Rogga Johansson and his co’s passionate take on raw and wild Death Metal which lives more from the horror and dread than from the hardness or speed. Matching this are the shocking cover, which was created by Felipe Mora (ACHERON, WOMBBATH), the forever reliable Pulverised Records will make this release available in 12″ vinyl (three colors), CD and digital format, to quest the thirst of any fanatic followers of the band and obviously the institution of Rogga Johansson. To explore more about the record and band, please visit www.facebook.com/pulverisedrecords or https://pulverised.bandcamp.com.