Official press release:
New York progressive/brutal death metal pioneers Afterbirth, featuring within its ranks members of Helmet, Artificial Brain, and Buckshot Facelift — are the latest additions to the Unique Leader Records roster.
Heavy, complex guitar work; atypically inspired bass rumblings; skillful, fast, and tastefully groovy drums/percussion; otherworldly growls from beyond known dimensions of time and space… All of this and more combine to form the basis of Afterbirth‘s current musical output.
Comments the band of their union with Unique Leader:
“Afterbirth is extremely pleased to announce that we’ve signed with Unique Leader Records, one of the most legendary and long-running labels in the death metal underground. We couldn’t be happier to be part of the Unique Leader tradition and its growing roster of some of the most intense and brutal bands operating in extreme music today.”
Details of the band’s forthcoming new full-length to be announced in the coming months.
Among the earliest purveyors of brutal death metal, Afterbirth was forged on Long Island, New York during the Summer of 1993. The following year, the band release the Psychopathic Embryotomy studio demo which has since become something of a cult-like classic among the extreme metal underground. Due to various issues among its members however, Afterbirth disbanded shortly thereafter the recording.
Fast forward almost twenty years to 2013: Setting aside the differences that might have contributed to their initial demise, Afterbirth reformed, rehearsing their older songs and crafting new material that not only drew upon their earlier work but also highlighted their collective musical evolution.
Afterbirth tracked a new demo simply titled 2014 Demo, which showcased their sharpened and honed musical prowess. It wasn’t long before the band was road blocked yet again as longtime founding front man Matt Duncan was asked to leave due to numerous creative, personal, and musical differences. The three remaining members — guitarist Cody Drasser, bassist David Case (Helmet), and drummer Keith Harris decided to continue on as a three-piece instrumental unit for the time, descending into an extremely rich and productive period of songwriting, The band would toil away in obscurity as a trio before joining forces with vocalist Will Smith of Artificial Brain and Buckshot Facelift. Smith‘s inhuman gutturals harken back to Afterbirth‘s brutal death metal roots, while his impressive shrieking, hardcore bark and unearthly vocal techniques add much needed depth and color to the band’s ever-increasing sonic palette.