House by the Cemetary – Disturbing the Cenotaph
Release Date: 12th December 2025
Label: Pulverised Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Bone Gnawer, Gorefest, Six Feet Under, Ribspreader.
Review By: Malte Brigge
Three albums in and House by the Cemetary insist on spelling cemetery like that. Maybe guitarist Rogga Johansson has so many bands he can’t bother with such details. Seriously, he has four lines of active bands on Metalluum (my favorite of which—of those I’ve listened to—is Paganizer, for the record) and three more of ex-bands. From what I can tell, all of them are old school death metal worship. House by the Cemetary includes fellow Swede Thomas Ohlsson (Apostasy, Dead Sun [also with Rogga] ex-The Project Hate MCMXCIX) on drums (HbyC’s third drummer, one per album) and American Mike Hrubovcak (Azure Emote, ex-Vile) with his gurgly, filth-strewn vocals. Both have plenty of other projects, too, so can House by the Cemetary stay focused long enough on Disturbing the Cenotaph to stab your earhole with their horror-inspired point?
Yup. Only one song passes the four-minute mark, and barely at that. There is no interest in expanding songs beyond one main riff and one breaking groove, repeated as necessary. No room for interludes, breakdowns, slowdowns or half-time feels. Hell, there’s not even time to welcome you to the album—opener New York Ripper doesn’t get past the one-second mark before Hrubovcak jumps in and starts spewing verses and choruses. Establish atmosphere? Set mood? Fuuuuuuck that! Just go, man! We’re on Rogga time! If you know Bone Gnawer, Ribspreader, Ghoulhouse, etc., you know House by the Cemetary. Run a forensic test and you’ll find evidence of harbingers like Obituary, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, et al., strewn about this human abattoir. Sharp, destructive tremolo violence leads off a fair few songs, and you can count on a big ol’ bouncy chugagroove to hit once or twice, probably something resembling a chorus or refrain. It’s hard to distinguish verses and choruses between most songs—pressing play at almost any point on the album sounds pretty much like any other point on the album. These guys have one thing to do, so they get in there and do just fucking that. Silence, prog fan!
Coffin Colony blasts tremolos and gruesome growls and will give you an appreciation for Ohlsson’s tight, dynamic drumming. The mix is powerful and supportive, his snare snaps like bones and toms thunder ominously. Island of the Dead sets its murderous course by the One Tone to Rule them All with small, simple guitar melodies rounding out the sound, adding some breadth to the songs. By the time Depraved Unspeakable Acts rolls around, you might start wondering if bonesaw tremolo and chuggy grooves at the bottom of a bender are all you’re going to get, so it’s a good job they go slightly mid-tempo on Massive Cadaver Resurrection with a more distinctly memorable riff. The one-two power chord changes are simple, almost simplistic, but effective. These songs were designed to get all y’all down there in the pit, expanding your territory with spinkicks, windmills and Rollins stomps.
Undead Apocalypse is the only real change, and it’s a mighty change. The one song to edge past four minutes (by a whole six seconds), it’s as close to doom as House by the Cemetary is going to get. It raises one really big question, though: where’s the fucking bass? Between these slow, open whole notes and those spacious drums, we really need some fat and stuffing. The whole album lacks low end, and I struggle to understand why, because the mix otherwise gives every instrument range and space. There’s nothing so complicated happening anywhere that warrants burying any part of the sound, and the way most songs make me wanna run around and slam against other bodies gets me craving some gristly bass even more, rather than occasional sound effects of someone screaming (more silly than cinematic, and kind of annoying, really).
House by the Cemetary don’t break any rules or blaze any trails, however deep in the backwoods they may be. That isn’t their point. They set out to make old school death metal that sounds like a band making old school death metal inspired by horror movies and serial killers, and they do it. If you’ve heard any Rogga album, you know what this one is: a steady cess inspiring bone bruises and torn muscles. They add nothing to the conversation, but are good at recapping what’s been said. Songs are fun, gory, even legible at times. Disturbing the Cenotaph decidedly doesn’t dish out much to dive into, but delivers a dirty half hour of undistracted, ditch-dragging death metal to deck your halls with this December.
(3 / 5)
