Malthusian The Summoning Bell CD ( Jewel Case, 2025, Relapse Records)

On their highly anticipated second full-length album, Ireland’s Malthusian return with a suffocating and uncompromising assault of blackened death metal. The Summoning Bell refines the band’s fetid hallmarks into a darker, more oppressive statement—unrelenting, pitch-black, and meticulously constructed.

The album opens with “Red, Waiting,” where swirling dissonant chords and ominous cymbal swells erupt into relentless blast-beat violence and crushing distortion. From there, Malthusian descend deeper into murk and madness, forging a sound that is both chaotic and deliberate. Every riff is carefully shaped to manipulate tension and momentum, creating an atmosphere of sustained dread and suffocation.

Lyrically and conceptually, The Summoning Bell is a lighting of the pyre. Across its tracks, the band explores themes of absolute nothingness, the rejection of superstition, and the erosion of meaning, charting a descent into darkness, entropy, and temporal collapse. The result is a record that confronts both internal and external extinction—a bleak reconciliation with the end of all things.

Cold, cavernous, and merciless, The Summoning Bell stands as one of the most oppressive black/death metal releases in recent years.

Recommended if you like: Bolzer, Portal, Dead Congregation, Grave Miasma, Ulcerate, Diocletian, Mitochondrion, Abyssal, Suffering Hour

Artist: Malthusian 
Title: The Summoning Bell 
Label: Relapse Records
Catalogue Number: RR7596
UPC: 781676759620
Release Year: 2025
Duration: Album
Format: CD 
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
Condition: New & factory sealed

Tracklist:

1. Isolation
2. Red, Waiting
3. Between Dens And Ruins
4. The Summoning Bell
5. The Onset Of The Death Of Man
6. Eroded Into Superstition
7. Amongst The Swarms Of Vermin
8. In Chaos, Exult