Southern California brutal death metal band VIROLOGIST will play two European festivals next spring. They've been added to Nice To Eat You Deathfest in Czechia (May 13–15, 2027) and Switzerland's Rock The Hell Fest (May 21–22, 2027). The band say both are part of a bigger trek across Europe, with more dates to be announced.
First comes the debut full-length. Subjugation Of Anthropoid Forms is out November 13 on New Standard Elite, timed with the label's SoCal Brutal Death Fest in El Monte, California, on November 13–14. The first single, "Opium-Induced Extrasensory Entrancement", features guest vocals from Ayato Yabuki of GYAKUKI.
VIROLOGIST started in 2023 as the project of then-17-year-old guitarist Emrys Mellinger. After the EPs Neurodegeneration and Ameliorating Vicissitudes, festival slots across the US and a set at Slam Dominate 2025 in Tokyo, the band self-produced the album, writing, recording and mixing it in a frantic three months this summer. Drummer Ethan Shadman and Mellinger did most of the writing in marathon sessions at their rehearsal space in Oxnard.
"We set out not to create brutal death metal but rather to use it as a medium through which to convey all of our many other ideas and influences," the band say. They call the result 27 minutes of "barely controlled chaos." Jamie King mastered the record, and the artwork is by Andy Dicochea.
The album lineup is Daniel Esquivel (vocals), Emrys Mellinger (guitars, vocals), Ethan Shadman (drums, vocals) and Sam Little (bass), with Logan Calvaresi guesting on track six. Fans of DEEDS OF FLESH, DEFEATED SANITY and MORTAL DECAY should take note.
Subjugation Of Anthropoid Forms tracklist:
- Effectuating Surfeited Mandication
- Gavaging Acidulous Discharge
- Opium-Induced Extrasensory Entrancement (feat. Ayato Yabuki)
- Maimed By The Therianthrope
- Plethora Of Inanimate Residuum
- Reanimation Of Mechanical Flesh Through Cybernetic Enslavement (feat. Logan Calvaresi)
- Concentrated Lethal Subsisting
- Irrational Omnicide By A Maniacal Egregodynamic Horde