Formed in 2018, GRAVE INFESTATION wasted no time in making their presence in the underground felt far and wide. Recorded as a power-trio, the band's debut demo, Infesticide, was originally self-released in late 2018 and then picked up for wider release by INVICTUS. On evidence of that opening 23-minute salvo, it's not difficult to understand why: GRAVE INFESTATION wielded a gutsfucking sound that near-effortlessly synthesized every slice of darkness of death metal's pivotal late '80s era. Death metal diehards took notice, and then the second demo, Infestation of Rotting Death, consolidated that enviable standing, now revealing the band as a quartet.

Alas, as doom enveloped the earth, GRAVE INFESTATION was lurking in wait, brewing their full-length debut. And it arrives with the force of a nuclear payload in the form of Persecution of the Living. Reprising a couple re-recorded songs from the preceding demo, the presciently titled Persecution of the Living wastes no fucking time in getting in and absolutely flaying the listener alive. The foundation remains much the same - from the malignant tendrils Morbid Angel cast across the Tampa scene to the buzzsaw bulldoze of the contemporaneous Swedish scene, the ancient foundation of Necrovore, Repulsion, and Sadistic Intent to Carcass' godly first two albums - but GRAVE INFESTATION exhibit a frightening clarity in their jackhammering attack. Some could call it a "clean(er)" iteration of their strident sound; others might view that cauldron with focus and finesse, as eerie melodies occasionally bubble up from the muck; but whatever tag you put on it, Persecution of the Living represents a professional-yet-powerful statement to the wider metal world. Darkness, death, DOOM: herald the grand arrival of GRAVE INFESTATION!