Death metal is a divisive genre. While some scoff at the idea of death metal without nonstop blast beats and gory, profanity-riddled lyrics, others are more interested in thought-provoking lyrics and musicianship that is heavy without sacrificing quality. Dutch metal project Mystical Death is a great example of heavily leaning into the latter, as evidenced by their debut full-length album, Across.

Mystical Death's line-up consists of three individuals. All the music and lyrics were written by the mysterious central figure known as Mystic, who is also responsible for the performances and production. Basically, everything you hear on this record is Mystic, except for the two vocalists, David Diefenderfer and Vixi Fox. David provides the screaming and growling, hitting hard with knockout performances, and Vixi soars with the clean vocals. She does occasionally hit some flat notes, but otherwise nails it in most of her rather infrequent appearances (the chorus in "Across" being a prime example).

If you simply want to understand the kind of band that Mystical Death is, all you need is the first two tracks. First, "Apophenia." The song gets the album started with a wild ride. A good portion of the song is spent with the aforementioned blast beats, accompanied by fast-paced, rhythmic growling and intense riffing. But a slower moment takes over the middle portion of the song, taking its time to experiment with the guitars and a bit of ambience. The word apophenia describes the ability to find commonality in seemingly random or unrelated objects or instances, and the lyrics go in-depth on the idea and connect it to humanity's tendency to fall into conspiracy theories.

Following is "Laniakea," which is named after the galaxy supercluster that the Milky Way Galaxy is part of. Unlike the preceding song's extensive vocabulary ("Cognitive bias permeates your core / heuristic pragmatism an open door / unconstrained apophenia / breeding ground for schizophrenia"), "Laniakea" takes inspiration from Psalm 19:1 and uses simpler language to admire God and the work of His hands ("Endless heavens, Laniakea / work of art, work of love … Kingdom among us / the Heaven of heavens descending toward us / love letter written across the skies"). Meanwhile, the guitars are less forceful, providing a bit more atmosphere with some phenomenal bass work, all before being met with a surprise saxophone solo a couple of minutes in. Another 90 seconds or so later, Mystic leans into the theme and goes out with some unexpected, but quite welcome, synthy and spacey sounds.

By this point of the album, the band has introduced itself lyrically and stylistically, but has also given the listener plenty of reasons to listen to the remaining eight tracks. "Inundant" bears a progressive death metal sound that fans of Becoming the Archetype may appreciate, "Kurtosi" features some incredible guitar work and ever-so-slightly leans into atmospheric black metal, and "Thalassa" follows in the latter's musical footsteps while dramaticizing the story of the Apostle Peter's faith and subsequent doubt in walking on water ("Oh me of little faith / why do I doubt when I've seen with my very own eyes / I do believe / help me overcome my unbelief / please hold my hand when I am drowning in the waves"). And to keep you on your toes, Across ends with an instrumental that sounds more like a piece from a Tim Burton film score (like a mid-tempo piece that plays while you inch closer to the post-credits scene).

Mystical Death debuted last year to little fanfare with the Carnation EP. It was certainly an enjoyable offering, but Mystic and company have really gone all out for Across. It's a fantastic and experiential death metal album that could very well end up in my top ten list this year. There are moments that feel like they could have benefited from some stronger production, but those moments are few and far between, and they don't detract from the songwriting or performances. If you like death metal and enjoy a few musical twists and turns, I highly recommend this one.

- Review date: 11/1/26, written by Scott Fryberger of Jesusfreakhideout.com

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Record Label: Rottweiler Records
Album length: 10 tracks: 37 minutes, 28 seconds
Street Date: November 6, 2026
Buy It: Apple Music

1. Apophenia (3:38)
2. Laniakea (4:13)
3. Inundant (3:21)
4. Lacerate (2:37)
5. Empathy (5:40)
6. Kurtosis (3:52)
7. Across (4:00)
8. Thalassa (3:40)
9. Voyagers (4:12)
10. Sanctus (2:12)