CORPSEMANGLE – Eating the Damned

Take a look at this album’s cover and ask yourself where it might have been produced. The aesthetic and the name clearly point toward death metal, so it’s only natural to think of the United States—more specifically, Florida. But that’s not the case: the geographical area in question is the Balkan Peninsula.

 

Corpsemangle is a duo from Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, formed by Antoan Bojkov (vocals, guitars) and Martin Aleksandrov (vocals, bass), who, up until this year, had largely flown under the radar. The project has been active since 2015 and, prior to this release, was solely driven by Bojkov. However, with the addition of his new bandmate, the duo has delivered a debut album that has already sparked considerable interest.

 

Eating the Damned, released on January 12, 2026, feels as if it were unearthed straight from the primordial era of death metal. There’s nothing here that wasn’t already forged in the fires of Morrisound Studios between 1990 and 1993—and that’s precisely why it sounds so authentic. Sure, the noticeable use of a drum machine might suggest otherwise at first, but once everything else kicks in, that impression quickly fades.

 

The ten tracks flow effortlessly, never dragging, with relentless rhythms and guitars churning out dense, crushing riffs that perfectly match the album’s atmosphere. Songs like Hydraulic Press Crusher, Zombie Killings, and Morbid Revelation stand out thanks to their stronger groove and slightly more dynamic structures, while faster cuts such as Liquified Remains and Visceral Repentance focus purely on impact, occasionally blending into one another with their unyielding barrage of riffs and pounding drums. As mentioned, the main influences are deeply rooted in early ’90s old-school death metal, drawing heavily from cornerstone acts like Deicide (especially in the vocals), early Cannibal Corpse, and early Death.

 

Many will argue that there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about this album—but it’s worth looking at the glass half full. Eating the Damned is a tight, compact release steeped in primordial death metal, finding its strength in atmosphere and a handful of groovier moments, while offering a solid refresher on what has been done in the past. It’s certainly not the most innovative record of recent years, but the potential is clearly there—and with time, it could be fully unleashed, perhaps even with a flesh-and-blood drummer behind the kit.