Victims Of Contagion – Egregore
Release Date: 25th September 2026
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Technical Death Metal, Progressive Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal.
FFO: The Faceless, Carrion Vael, Inferi, The Black Dahlia Murder, Summoning The Lich, Unaligned.
Review By: Steiner Metal
Turns out, describing what you like is tougher than articulating what you don’t. It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise either since, even before our earliest memories, we’d all become highly proficient at crying and screaming like hell when circumstances weren’t quite to our satisfaction. From cradle to grave, nobody needs help explaining what they don’t like. But ask why we like something, and the response is rarely as reflexive. It’s a question that requires some thought. Egregore, the sophomore LP from Victims Of Contagion, set to release on September 25th through Satanath Records, is one such example—enormously satisfying but exceedingly difficult to characterize.
Formed in Pittsburgh, PA, in 2007, Victims of Contagion spent their formative years cutting their teeth in the underground scene, building a reputation through relentless live performances and a succession of independently released demos. Along the way, they shared bills with notable acts like The Faceless, Obscura, Suffocation and more. The band eventually released an EP in 2014, followed by a strong debut LP in 2019, also via Satanath Records. The current lineup consists of Chuck Forsythe and Anthony Zelloon on guitars, Chris Edison on vocals, Robert Geisler on bass, and Mike Rush on drums.
Recording for Egregore began in mid-2024 and was meticulously refined over the following 18 months. It’s clear this is the end product of perfectionists. Across seven tracks, the album delivers hyper-accelerated tempos, icy tremolo picking, neoclassical precision, polyrhythmic arrangements, and progressive experimentation, with darker atmospheric touches and crushing grooves woven into elaborate compositions. The musicianship is off the charts, but Edison’s vocals more than match the moment. Guttural growls transition into ear-splitting screams with nary a clean vocal in sight, at times almost acting like another instrument to augment the album’s relentless auditory onslaught. The powerful work on mic is a surprising highlight of the release.
What’s immediately evident is that Egregore is a different animal from the band’s previous releases. Earlier material drew from storied death metal acts like Death, Suffocation, Gorguts and Atheist. Those influences haven’t completely left the building, but the foundation has expanded into a more progressive style, with this latest opus representing the band’s most pronounced evolution yet. The aforementioned Forsythe and Zello are the proverbial tip of the spear too, serving as co-pilots of the twin-guitar assault at the heart of the band’s intricate arrangements. There’s a veritable buffet of ear candy to sink your teeth into: stunningly crafted solos, unique thrashy and blackened passages, relentless pace and precision, well-placed acoustic sections, riffs growing on riffs, and enough counterpoint to give Bach a chubby. When technical death metal blends melody, groove, aggression and velocity like this, it’s captivating.
So, what exactly makes Egregore so damn satisfying? Maybe it’s the sheer density of ideas packed into every track, or the way Victims Of Contagion can pile complexity upon complexity without losing sight of melody, groove, or sheer brutality. Maybe it’s the sense that every instrument is pushing the others to go further, resulting in music that rewards both casual listening and repeated immersion. Whatever the answer, Egregore is an album that demands attention and continues improving with each successive spin. Victims Of Contagion have clearly evolved but without abandoning the aggression that got them here, and the result is a remarkably ambitious, meticulously crafted record that refuses to be easily pigeonholed. In the end, perhaps the best way to describe Egregore is the simplest: it’s seven tracks of exceptionally well-written, technically ferocious metal that’s just one helluva good time.
(4 / 5)
