Whilst I was recently dragging my net hungrily through the sea of newly birthed Death Metal releases, I seem to have had a spot of luck with an exciting catch. I am talking about Scorching Tomb, a four piece outfit hailing from Montreal, Quebec. Having formed in 2018, and with the band subsequently releasing an initial demo tape a year later. This demo was then followed by the band’s Rotting Away EP, a reverb laced and cavernous batch of filthy, grindy tracks that showed considerable musical promise in 2022 (VM Underground’s review of this EP can also be found on the site). A split with fellow Montreal native gore fanatics Primal Horde would then follow in 2023. Now, in late 2025 we have arrived at the band’s debut full length ‘Ossuary’.
Upon first listen I was immediately enamoured with the guitars on this album. The audibly impaling and richly distorted tones are consistently complemented throughout the album by excellent riff-craft. This initial listen to this brutal batch of songs certainly invigorated me during the heavy workout that I was subjecting myself to at the time. The riffs on Ossuary seem to draw far and wide from the playbook of Brutal Death Metal and never seem to settle into a stale overused idea. Track two ‘Skullcrush’ opens to a rotten, disgustingly distorted bassline before the guitars follow suit to open up this chugtastic beast. The guitars proceed to provide ample Suffocation worship whilst infecting the track with their distinctive Swedish chainsaw crunch. The song also features vocal contributions from Devin Swank of Sanguisugabogg fame (a review for the new Sanguisugabogg album can also be found on VM Underground).
Track five ‘Sentenced to Rot’ brings riff flavours similar to Trample the Weak era Skinless and is a real powerhouse moment of slower paced carnage. Primal Horde makes another appearance on ‘Feel the Blade’, a track with amazing interplay between the interspaced double kick drum breaks and technically jarring rhythms of the guitars. The production on Ossuary takes notes from the improvements made on the band’s split EP versus the more compressed sound of Rotting Away. The album has plenty of breathing room to allow everything to sound suitably massive without coming across as overly synthetic.
Ossuary is one of the most pleasant surprises I’ve had whilst discovering new Death Metal bands in 2025. Whilst not the most expansive release, the band makes fantastic use of the album’s short runtime regardless, and they never seem to get too comfortable meditating on a single idea. Should you find yourself drenched in sweat, beer and vomit at an Ossuary gig, or putting yourself through a gruelling workout or even finding yourself contained within the neon hued colour palate of the cosmic skull realm depicted on that wicked album cover… Scorching Tomb has got you covered for some fine grindy, and utterly skull shattering Death Metal ragers.
