Somewhere in Southern California, a group of young musicians has apparently swallowed an entire medical dictionary, developed a pathological aversion to conventional song structures and decided that brutal death metal simply wasn’t brutal enough.

Meet Virologist.

Formed in 2023 by then-17-year-old guitarist Emrys Mellinger, the Oxnard-based outfit has spent the intervening years refining an especially unpleasant strain of sonic pathology. Their debut full-length, Subjugation of Anthropoid Forms, delivers eight tracks and 27 minutes of anatomical atrocities, technical contortions and enough guttural hostility to warrant a visit from the CDC.

Today, we’re administering a particularly nasty specimen: the video for “Maimed by the Therianthrope,” the fourth track from the forthcoming album. Consider it a concentrated dose of the biological unpleasantness Virologist has been cultivating.

But beneath the blastbeats and titles like “Irrational Omnicide by a Maniacal Egregodynamic Horde” lurks something almost wholesome: four musicians who genuinely believe brutal death metal can transcend its own limitations.

“We set out not to create brutal death metal but rather to use it as a medium through which to convey all of our many other ideas and influences,” the band explains. “The state of music today is very contrived and image-dependent, and we strive to write songs that come from a sincere place to contrast with that.”

Written, recorded, and produced largely over three feverish months, Subjugation of Anthropoid Forms captures youthful ambition colliding with wholesale biological destruction.

We’re delighted to administer the first infectious dose below.

Subjugation of Anthropoid Forms arrives November 13 via New Standard Elite. Consider this your informed consent.

The post Video Premiere: Virologist – “Maimed by the Therianthrope” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.