Band:	Unbounded Terror
Album:	Something Is Rotten In Humanity
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	April 01, 2025
A review by:	F3ynman

01. Fear Of Dying
02. Destiny Of Evil
03. Demons In Your Mind
04. Reviving
05. Inside Death
06. The Disappointment
07. Divine Virtue
08. Believing Again
09. The Evil Cause
10. I'm A Freak [Wicked Lady cover] [bonus]

Something Is Rotten In Humanity. Ain't that the truth…

The ugliness of our world, expressed through music. In a way, that's what death metal is all about. For some reason, we metalheads find it cathartic. As a result, a great volume of death metal bands has accumulated over the last decades, each trying to sound more quintessentially death metal than the last one. However, the genre seems to have chosen the path of quantity over quality, and it becomes increasingly difficult to spot those bands that try something new amongst the sea of copy-cats. Unbounded Terror seems, at first, to be yet another derivative band. The music on their newest album doesn't invent anything new for the genre, but there is something about the guitar-work, which keeps me revisiting it again and again.

The origin of this band dates back all the way to 1990. Yet, shortly after their debut release in 1992, they disbanded for almost 3 decades. Now, since 2020, with 3 new band members, the project surrounding veteran musician Vicente Paya has been completely revitalized. On a surface level, their music style has all the hallmarks of standard, old-school death metal. You've got the rumbling, monotonous growls, the low, evil rhythm. But, the longer I listen, the more I pick up on elements that keep me intrigued.

The riffs, while not all too inventive, are cunningly played to keep you hooked, mixing a touch of melody into the menacing vibe, expertly combining grooviness with aggression. Furthermore, the riffs keep evolving and shifting, never giving you a moment to breathe among the constant tempo changes. Another major success is the variety of the guitar solos: sometimes wailing and whining à la Slayer, sometimes going into a more progressive direction that sounds a whole lot like Death, and, sometimes, just shredding away at top speed.

At the nicely digestible runtime of only 32 minutes, you should give this a listen in one go. But, if you're really in a rush, I recommend at least listening to the catchy opener “Fear of Dying” and “Reviving”, which goes from an atmospheric intro to chugging riffage, and finally ending on a great guitar solo. The cherry on top, and the closer to the album, is the purely instrumental track “The Evil Cause”, where Unbounded Terror show off all their incredibly entertaining and mesmerising guitar capabilities.

In conclusion, together with the rapid drumming and accentuated by the rough gutturals, the engaging and constantly morphing guitar playing keeps me fully attentive and head-bobbing. Something Is Rotten In Humanity may be pretty standard in the grand context of the death metal genre, but its guitar-work is just too damn fun, firmly elevating the album out of the bog of mediocrity.