Mutagenic Host hails from London, England and is an up-and-coming death metal band, who released their The Genotoxic Demo in 2023.  Their filthy and sludgy brand of death metal is impressive and they one-up their demo with their debut album –  The Diseased Machine. 10 songs in 41 minutes and “Neurological Necrosis” starts things off extremely heavy.  I am feeling vibes of Asphyx, Autopsy, and 200 Stab Wounds.  Check out the riff at the 1.50 mark, sounds eerily similar to Autopsy and vocalist Ash Moore definitely has Chris Reifert as an influence.  There are ugly gutturals and those maniacal screams.  This track has excellent tempo shifts going from sludgy doomy heaviness to wild blast beats and vomitrocious vocals.  The ending has a vintage Autopsy stamp on it, think 1989-1992.  So damn heavy, this guitar tone is how you start off 2025 good people!

“Genestealer” has an excellent isolated opening guitar riff that gets into a great mid-paced heaviness with a rumbling double bass from George Kinsella-Pearn.  This mid-paced moment showcases early on a pretty tight rhythm section rounded out by Dan Bulford on bass and guitarists Sami Tuohino/ Jack Thompson.  The 200 Stab Wounds influence is obvious with some of the more enunciated vocals which are also used in an aggressive mid-range and the groove/hoppy sections.  These moments are plentiful on this song and the monster groove will have those bastids over there in England doing slams all day while woofing down pints of beer and eating fish n chips all damn day!  This is a great song, through and through.

“Incomprehensible Methods of Slaughter” was one of the singles early on released prior to the album and the beginning is a thing of beauty with the isolated bass guitar intro.  I swear if I ever see this band live, this is the moment when I would start this pit.  The drum beat hits and then the guitars and full-blown groove.  Massive in the heaviness with the Autopsy and 200 Stab Wounds moments.  There are also Sanguisugabogg moments with the heavy AF slam.  This opening is the best moment on the album – the smart decision to release this song as a single.  Freaking heavy, heavy, and heavy. As this monolith of heaviness continues to steamroll, it seems to get heavier and heavier.  This song pounds.  Best song on the album!

“Rivers of Grief” ends the album in a delightful fashion at first.  An intro starts working its way into your brain, with some space sounds/computerized vocals and the music hits with some eerie guitar melodies.  There is some Asphyx doom and when that guitar tone hits at the 90-second mark, it sounds a wee bit like Asphyx.  This is a doomy and groovy number that will have you swinging, however….it’s an instrumental—NOOOOOO!  Death metal bands, please stop ending your albums with an instrumental.   The music on this song is excellent and there definitely could have been some vocals on this track.  Excellent music, but ending a debut album, with an instrumental ..hmmm odd choice.

The Diseased Machine is a high-quality debut album.  Despite the ending instrumental this album is a lot of fun.  I find the music to be organic and Mutagenic Host definitely knows how to write heavy and catchy death metal.  I love the album cover which goes quite well with the song titles and lyrics.  I am looking forward to future releases from this band.

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