If you trace Vrykolakas back to where it all started, you inevitably end up at Bestial Colony. That was where Khairil, long before becoming one of the mainstays of Vrykolakas, was already involved in the early Singapore Death Metal underground. Bestial Colony appeared around 1990, recorded the ‘Universal Decay’ demo in 1991 and, like many of those early outfits, did not survive for very long. What did survive was the urge to keep playing.
When Bestial Colony came to an end, Khairil and Shafiee from Demoniac started working on another project in July 1991. It initially went under the name Tumulus before becoming Vrykolakas, and the early formation was stripped down to the two of them, Khairil handling drums and vocals while Shafiee took care of the guitar. By 1992 they had already put together the first Vrykolakas demo, and what could easily have been another short-lived Singapore underground band instead developed into something that would continue for more than three decades.
That history matters when listening to ‘Into Sunless Gravescapes’ because Vrykolakas were not formed during some later revival of old school Death Metal where musicians could study thirty years of records and work backwards from them. Khairil and his contemporaries were discovering this material while it was still developing, trading tapes, absorbing whatever extreme Metal they could get their hands on and trying to figure out how to turn those influences into something of their own. Bestial Colony was part of that beginning, and Vrykolakas became the continuation.
There have been plenty of changes along the way, including periods where the band disappeared from view, but Vrykolakas kept returning with another release and another version of their Death Metal. From the early demos through ‘Spawned From Hellfire and Brimstone’, ‘Unleashing Vrykolakas Upon Mankind’, ‘And Vrykolakas Brings Chaos and Destruction’ and the releases that followed, the band’s identity has gradually become much more defined. They have never been content simply to reproduce the same material from one album to another, even though the foundation has always remained firmly rooted in extreme Metal.
Now we arrive at ‘Into Sunless Gravescapes’, released through Iron, Blood and Death Corporation on August 20, 2026. The album was recorded at TNT Studio between June 2023 and September 2024, with Nizam Aziz handling the mixing and mastering between December 2024 and February 2025. Andi handles the vocals, Khairil takes care of guitars and additional vocals, Edi is behind the drums, while Joshua provides the session bass.
There is quite a lot of ground covered on this record, and the first thing that stands out is how much attention has gone into the guitars. Khairil has always been central to the Vrykolakas sound, but the playing here has enough movement and variation to keep the material from settling into predictable territory. The riffs can be savage and direct, but there are also slower passages, changes in direction and guitar parts that give the songs a character beyond simply being another exercise in speed.
‘No Grave, No Funeral’ establishes that approach without immediately giving away everything the album has in store. The guitars move between different moods while Edi keeps the rhythm shifting underneath them, and Andi’s vocals sit comfortably over the arrangements rather than dominating the entire mix. There is a sense that the band are allowing the songs to develop instead of trying to cram every possible Death Metal trick into the opening minutes.
That becomes more apparent through ‘The Pungent Stench of Revenge’ and ‘Fetish for Immortality’, where the arrangements continue to move between faster and heavier sections without losing their direction. Vrykolakas have been around long enough to know that brutality does not necessarily come from playing everything at the same speed, and the changes in pace give the riffs room to carry their own weight.
The production also works in the band’s favour. There is enough separation to pick out what is happening in the guitars and drums, but the album has not been polished into some lifeless modern Death Metal product. The rougher edges are still there, which is important for a band whose history is deeply connected to the underground rather than to whatever happens to be fashionable at the moment.
As the album moves into ‘Parading Putridity’, ‘The Winds Carry Destruction’ and ‘Reciting Desecration’, the songwriting becomes increasingly interesting because the band are not relying solely on nostalgia. There are obvious roots in the Death Metal that shaped them, but the material does not sound like Khairil and company are simply trying to recreate what they were doing in 1991 or 1992. Three decades of playing have naturally changed the way these musicians approach their instruments, and that experience comes through in the arrangements.
Edi deserves particular attention because his drumming gives the album much of its movement. He is able to keep the faster passages aggressive without turning the songs into a blur, while the slower sections have enough weight to prevent the album from becoming a continuous sprint. His playing and Khairil’s guitars work particularly well together, with the rhythm section allowing the guitar parts to develop instead of simply providing a backdrop.
Andi’s vocals remain another recognisable part of the Vrykolakas identity. They have the harshness required for the material but still retain enough character to avoid sounding interchangeable with every other Death Metal vocalist working in the same territory. Khairil’s additional vocals add another dimension without making the vocal arrangements unnecessarily complicated.
‘Maggots Without Mercy’ continues that balance before ‘Spiritual Phagocytosis’ brings the album to its conclusion. By this stage, the record has established what it wants to do without needing any artificial climax or dramatic closing statement. The songs have enough variation to hold together as an album, while the individual performances give you reasons to go back and listen again.
What makes ‘Into Sunless Gravescapes’ worthwhile is ultimately the same thing that has kept Vrykolakas around for so long. There is a genuine history behind this band, but they are not using that history as an excuse to stop developing. The connection to Bestial Colony and those first years of Singapore’s underground is still part of the band’s DNA, yet this is clearly the work of musicians who have spent decades learning how to make their own version of Death Metal rather than simply copying the records that first got them hooked.
For a band that began when the Singapore underground was still finding its feet, Vrykolakas have managed to remain active through several generations of Metalheads, changes in technology, changing trends and the gradual disappearance of many of the bands they started alongside. ‘Into Sunless Gravescapes’ adds another chapter to that story without trying to dress itself up as something it isn’t, and that honesty is probably one of the strongest things about the record.
