Undeath goes more insane 

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It’s 9 a.m. Pacific Time and Kyle Beam, lead guitarist and songwriter for Undeath, is groggily walking through the streets of Burbank, California. He’s sacrificing much-needed sleep for a chat about the death metal quintet’s ongoing tour and the release of its third full-length album, the aptly titled “More Insane.”

“I fell asleep at 7 p.m., woke up at 3 a.m., went back to bed around 5 a.m., and totally forgot I had to be up in four more hours,” Beam said. “So, sorry about that.”

His exhaustion is well-earned: fresh off a tour that brought the band on its first Asia trip—playing in clubs in Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing, and Bangkok, to name a few—followed by a stint in Australia, Undeath hit some immediate hangups stateside.

Drummer Matt Browning got sick, prompting the rare cancelation of shows in Los Angeles and Mesa, Arizona. Their supporting act from Tokyo, Kruelty, got delayed at the Japanese consulate over passport issues.

Those obstacles aside, Undeath is having a moment. Or, rather, a continued moment. Their first album, 2020’s “Lesions of a Different Kind” catapulted the band as a new preeminent voice in their self-described “skull-crushing death metal.” 2022’s “It’s Time...to Rise from the Grave” cemented their sound as something unique: catchy, anthemic death metal. “More Insane” is exactly what one would expect, and more.

It’s a beautiful cataclysm, a veritable potpourri of metal influences, from homages to old-school death metal a la Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse to tinges of thrash thrown into the mix.

Beam and rhythm guitarist Jared Welch lean into riffs in a way few bands can, fluctuating seamlessly from brutal, crushing grooves to harmony and melodies at breakneck speed. The opening track, “Dead from Beyond,” sets pace with a marching drum beat punctuated by understated guttural grunts opening into truly infectious guitar melodies.

The ninth track, immaculately titled “Disattachment of a Prophylactic in the Brain,” is a standout in metal guitarwork, its fluid transitions from grooves to solos a reminder of extremes the genre is capable of.

“It’s more independent guitar playing, stuff like that, more solos, I wanted to take what we did and make it fresh again,” Beam said.

That approach extends to vocalist Alex Jones’s offerings. On Undeath’s first two releases, Jones’s vocals largely stayed in a general, guttural growl area expected of death metal. But on “More Insane,” he extends to new heights, literally, breaking out higher-register shrieks on tracks like “Brandish the Blade” and “Wailing Cadavers.”

“I didn’t just want to just do the same shit three times in a row,” Jones said. “I didn’t want to just come out and do fucking clean singing and ruin the album, but I knew everybody else was bringing their A-game and being very ambitious in what they were doing. I didn’t want to just sit back and coast.”

Undeath will have their homecoming at Photo City Music Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 27. The number of active Rochester bands that have ascended to their heights could be counted on one hand.

That fact isn’t lost on them. Beam and Jones will be first to tell you how “weird” it is to come from working just to play the Bug Jar to booking gigs in Hanoi and Sydney. A credit to what makes Undeath Undeath, they said, is Rochester’s spirit.

“I think it’s important to put on for your city, put on for the people that had your back when you weren’t shit,” Jones said. “That’s what we all try to do, we’re a Rochester-based band, and we’re proud of that.” undeathmetal.com

Gino Fanelli is a reporter for WXXI/CITY. He can be reached at [email protected].