Street Tombs – Existence Is Corruption
Release Date: 21st August 2026
Label: Carbonized Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal, Punk.
FFO: Cemetery Reign, Outre-Tombe, Superstition, Skelethal, Disfear.
Review By: Aeons Burning
I like that the New Mexico scene seems to be growing. Death metal from there in particular has a rather nasty, sand and rot-ridden tone, and Street Tombs exemplify that to an extreme degree. Their 2023 debut Reclusive Decay was a pretty impressive display of grimy, filth-laden death/thrash metal and I was pretty happy to see them coming back with a rip-roaring vengeance on this sophomore effort Existence is Corruption. I’m also happy to report that this is just as nasty and sewage-ridden as the debut. There’s another element that Street Tombs bring, and that’s a punky attitude that just reeks of earlier stuff like Disfear, and that uniqueness is one of the qualities that makes me come back to Street Tombs again and again.
Existence is Corruption doesn’t waste your time with intros or interludes, it just immediately breaks away like a feral pit bull from the moment you hit play. None of these songs are overly flashy, but all of them focus purely on bringing head-banging riffs instead of wonky technicality. Pestilent Storm is a great benchmark about what to expect from the rest of Existence is Corruption: if you like fast-paced thrashy riffs, then you’ll dig the rest of this. If you don’t, you suck and should probably fix that you won’t dig this record. My favorite aspect of Existence is Corruption, alongside the killer riffs, is the phenomenal drumming courtesy of Ben Brodsky (also the logo artist). Some of the fills on here, such as in Systematic Suffering, absolutely slap and give a subtle extra layer of complexity. My chief complaint, however, is that Existence is Corruption tends to get a little bit one-note by the end.
Existence is Corruption is never bad by any means, but even though I enjoy this, a hair over a half-hour is the perfect length for this style of extremely straightforward death metal. While I can’t see this cracking any lists at the end of the year, Street Tombs have delivered another highly enjoyable album (that’s probably even better enjoyed when drunk or cruising down the highway) that I can see coming back to repeatedly before the year is out. Consistency is always a great quality in bands, and I imagine album three will be just as solid as this if Street Tombs keep up this pace.
(3.5 / 5)
