UMUR
"A World Drowning in Detest" is the third full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Detest. The album was released through Emanzipation Productions in December 2024. It´s the successor to "We Will Get What We Deserve" from 2021, which was Detest´s comeback album after not having released a full-length studio album since "Dorval" from 1994, although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the "A Moment of Love" EP from 2019.
So with a more steady release rate it would seem that Detest are back with a vengeance. Listening to "A World Drowning in Detest", the vengeance part isn´t entirely true though, but more about that later. Stylistically Detest play a predominantly old school oriented death metal style which is based on heavy riffs and grooves and which is mostly played at mid-pace, although the band speed things up on occasion. My impression is however overall that "A World Drowning in Detest" is a faster-paced album than "We Will Get What We Deserve". The vocals are one-dimensional growling and performed without much feeling or aggression. They are just there and lead vocalist/bassist Simon Springborg gets the job done but not much more than that.
The musicianship is overall pretty strong, but I have to mention that some of the lead guitar parts sound a little shaky/out of tune. The worst example of that is on instrumental album opener "It's Over", but the leads are generally not the greatest throughout the album. "A World Drowning in Detest" features a professional and well sounding production job, so it´s the relatively mediocre songwriting and the sometimes shaky musicianship which aren´t fully up to par with some of the contemporary Danish death metal artists which Detest are in competition with like Baest and Neckbreakker. As legends of the Danish death metal scene Detest are supposed to show the new young artists that they are leaders, but on "A World Drowning in Detest" they sound like faceless followers to me. Despite the criticism there are however still quality here and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.