Review by Sam on March 24, 2026.

I am new to Dying Fetus, and let me just say that, man, these guys rule. This is brutality defined. I don’t really know why it took me so long to reach for this band; I’ve always thought their album covers are kickass, and I’m not sure it’s possible to coin a more brutal or diabolical name for a band than DYING FETUS. About a dozen years ago I worked at a local record store and we had copies of Destroy The Opposition, Killing On Adrenaline, and War Of Attrition, and I would always admire the artwork, read through the gatefold, but for some reason I had a creeping suspicion that the tunes contained therein just wouldn’t be as cool as those iconic covers, so I never put one on the turntable. Fucking ignorant, right?

Right. About a month ago, the algorithm of YouTube kept presenting me with Make Them Beg For Death, so one day I took them up on it. Immediately, I said to myself, dude, what the fuck is wrong with you? This shit’s badass. For one thing, the gutturals of John Gallagher may be the heaviest to be found in the bdm genre, maybe even better than Frank Mullen (yes, for real), the drums are insane, and the guitar work is a sonic blend of neanderthal and mad scientist in the laboratory. My favorite thing that Dying Fetus does is when they do a slow palm-muted eighth note crunch over flying like 64th note double bass. Hearing kick drums that fast just makes my brain melt. It makes my jaw drop in disbelief as I sit there wondering how in the fuck is this humanly possible.

So, in my month or so of exploring the Dying Fetus catalog, I’ve come to the conclusion that I much prefer the sound of the drums on the earlier stuff because of the production. My favorite is easily Destroy The Opposition not only because of the analogous drum sound, but this seems to be their defining moment as a band. Anyway, the kick drums on DTO sound like wooden beaters striking a steel plate affixed to the drum head, which was a common trick used in extreme metal back in the day, and it simply can’t be beat. Also, those early records featured Kevin Talley, a god among men.

On Reign Supreme, the drum performance is absolutely mind-bending. See the closing seconds of album opener 'Invert The Idols' if you’d care to have your brain turned to mush. How in the fuck is he doing this? Well, friends, the answer is: triggers. Well, triggers, and some totally insano ankle rudiments where I believe drummer Trey Williams is actually playing a double stroke on his pedals by using the heel-toe method. In this method, the drummer uses a rocking motion: the first stroke is made by dropping the heel, and the second is made by using the toes to push the pedal back up. Since Williams employs triggers on his kick drums, the warp speed notation is made to sound uniform and balanced, because if he were to do this analogously, what the listener would hear would probably be nothing at all. So while the heel-toe method is fascinating and allows for mind-boggling speed, it is a method of finesse, not power. Drummers who play heel-toe cannot bury the beater because they are not using the strength of the whole leg. All I’m saying is heel-toe guys have no choice but to use triggers, and triggers are a problem for some purists. End of rant.

Another thing I love about Dying Fetus is their ability (when they’re not blazing forth at the speed of light) to write a good, solid, ball-crushing guitar riff. The opening riff of 'From Womb To Waste' is a prime example, and when the half-time 32nd note double bass comes in underneath it simply can’t get any heavier for my money. And when I first heard the sample that kicks the track off, I was like holy fuck, this is it! This is the song that made me say Dying Fetus is not to be fucked with. Of course, within 'From Womb To Waste' they have their flying arpeggio hyper speed blast beat part, which is fine, whatever, but I’m here to have my balls smashed by the heaving brutality of that opening riff.

John Gallagher’s obsession with the sweep arpeggio can be a bit tiresome, especially for someone who is not a guitarist. I get it. It’s a highly technical picking method that allows guitarists to showboat and make other guitarists say Dude No Way but it just doesn’t do a whole lot for me. I used to be in a band in which the guitar player had a similar obsession, and he was always trying to work that BS into our stuff, and every time he did it seemed very tedious and headache-inducing when he couldn’t reproduce it. Guitar players are a strange breed of human who sometimes seem to dwell on things that are not really real.

'In The Trenches' is another killer track that leads off with a driving, bone-crunching riff. This transitions smoothly into a low-end tremolo guitar line over a Slayer beat, which returns beautifully to the opening riff. The middle of the song features some more of that inhumanly fast bass drumming, which, while it can be argued that it’s not real, there will never be a time when this shit will not make me say goddamn. The following track, 'Devout Atrocity', does this some more, this time underneath insane blast beats. So while I may criticize Trey Williams for some of his digital tendencies, his rudimentary and technical prowess is completely unflappable.

I recently saw John Gallagher on an episode of the Garza Podcast. (Yes, I realize that Chris Garza comes from the abomination known as suicide silence, but his list of past guests is quite impressive. I mean, Glen Benton, John McEntee, Chris Barnes, Travis Ryan… even Buzzo from The Melvins made an appearance. So while his band is mallcore, perhaps his podcast is not?) In the episode featuring Dying Fetus, John Gallagher opens up about his struggles with addiction. He says that he went totally sober for the year the band was working on Reign Supreme, which is why it sounds so focused, and it kind of stands out among the rest of the band’s repertoire. He also said before he got clean, he got into xanax while on the road, which caused me some extreme cognitive dissonance. I’ve enjoyed my share of blues and bars, but with the half-life of that shit, I’m not right for several days afterward. If he was doing this regularly whilst touring in Dying Fucking Fetus and not being booed off the stage, well, something must be said for this man’s constitution.

Rating: 9.1 out of 10

Review by Lawrence Stillman on November 30, 2023.

Dying Fetus has been my go-to brutal death metal band for a while, mostly thanks to their balance of excellent brutal death metal riffs, mosh-friendly sections, and groovy breakdowns. While their last album was a dud mostly for its long song lengths that led to some bloat and aimlessness, this album is what I would show to those who want to get into brutal death metal, showing them it's not all slams and breakdowns. Being the band that pioneered the Baltimore style of brutal death metal, you should already expect that this band does not sound like your midwest brutal death metal band, DF has an increased focus on technicality compared to other brutal death metal bands while still keeping things simple for fans that want to just simply mosh, which is why DF is my recommended gateway band for brutal death metal.

This album plays like any other Dying Fetus album but is more refined, just like any band that dabbles in their respective genre for a long time. While this might seem like a detriment to some (because of material repetition), the riffs here do separate themselves from previous albums. But even without that, what Dying Fetus (and bands that took influence from them like Criminal Element and Misery Index) played here is still unmistakably brutal death metal. Really excellent brutal death metal. All the riffs here are very catchy and interesting, and the same can be said for the breakdowns (not the breakdowns from -core bands, but actual death metal breakdowns like the one in Suffocation's Liege of Inveracity). While the album is short (37.5 minutes), the number of riffs here makes use of almost every single second of the album's run time, making it an album full of killer material with no filler.

The album also increased the presence of technical guitar solos, riffs and basslines compared to their previous album, Descend Into Depravity which is something I liked since I am already accustomed to even more technical bands like Origin. The album also changes up their sounds frequently enough to keep things interesting throughout its runtime, constantly going back and forth from groovy breakdowns, to mid-paced rhythm sections, to noodly solos, all while not sounding overly convoluted like prog/tech bands that went all in on musical expression and forgot that they are making things too inaccessible (looking at you post-Mike Portnoy Dream Theater).

The instrumentation/production are also quite interesting; it uses panning to differentiate the three instruments here. John Gallagher (vocals/guitar) on the left channel, Sean Beasley (secondary vocals/bass) on the right channel, while the drums stay squarely in the middle, also utilizing panning to make the hi-hat/left toms/snare respond to the left channel while the crash/ride cymbal and right side toms respond to the right channel. This gave Dying Fetus a fuller sound and a soundscape as rich as a five-piece band (like they used to be back in the day). Another result of this production decision is making the bass more audible, as the bass guitar gets its own audio channel to express itself on, and I think this is required as Sean's basslines are just as catchy and important as Gallagher's riffs and gave the band its current sound that they are praised for. Also the drums don't sound triggered at all, which is a plus for me.

This is definitely their best album up until now, and I hope their upcoming album can dethrone this one.

Highlights: All songs

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Death8699 on February 4, 2019.

I chose to review this one of their latest because I thought that it was catchier and sort of the essence of a better Dying Fetus-esque vibe than their current release. Not to mention that I like the production on here, it's solid. The vocals have never been my favorite listening moments in Dying Fetus albums, but they want to keep it underground and I have no problem in saying "okay, this is how you want to do it, you can change it up here and there." John Gallagher and Sean Beasely trade off on vocals so it's variety, at least.

What's so gripping about this release is the music above everything else. Dying Fetus just tears it up in the guitar department. The arpeggios whizzing up and down the fret-board alongside thick guitar artistry tempos really are all over the place. But the execution of the drums along the guitar is what makes this a gem. I don't think I've liked a Dying Fetus album more than this one. Honestly, I don't care that they sing about morbid topics such as hatred and violence mixed with some flirty political views. This is brutal death metal, they can write what they deem fitting to write about.

I cannot get enough of the guitars and energy. They rip it up and the vocals keep the music sounding darker than it actually is. So yeah, it's from every aspect from what's been talked about the band forming in Maryland circa 1991 alongside members comping and going in the band, it seems that they have their strongest, most gripping lineup since forming. 

The blast beats I can deal with since I favor bands like Napalm Death during the Mick Harris (ex-Napalm Death/Defecation) era of drummers and totally am into the grind Napalm Death days where it was just raw. At the time Dying Fetus formed, ND's "Harmony Corruption" was released (I believe that year, 1991). So they tackled their influences in the grind mode but strain it deeper with more memorable arpeggios and tremolo picking that's almost robotic. The drums have been criticized on here (Reign Supreme) yet I think the snare is just fine. 

Altogether, we've touched on the production, the music, the lyrical concepts, the originality in songwriting (to a certain extent) and the vocals. There's no reason why this album is nothing closer to perfect than anything in their entire discography. Check out "Subjected To A Beating", "In the Trenches", "Devout Atrocity" and "The Blood of Power." In the words of Chuck Schuldiner (RIP): "keep the metal faith alive." Get this one, NOW!

Rating: 10 out of 10