{"id":121450,"date":"2025-11-04T15:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/121450\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:18:07","slug":"stillbirth-survival-protocol-angry-metal-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/121450\/","title":{"rendered":"Stillbirth – Survival Protocol | Angry Metal Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I take a seat in a cramped, rusted chair. Across from me sits a gorilla in some sort of crown and a man whose face could only be described as Abbathian<\/a>. It\u2019s time for my first performance review at AMG Headquarters, and things aren\u2019t looking great. \u201cAtmospheric n\u00fc metal\/free jazz<\/a>? German dance music<\/a>? What are we, discount Pitchfork?\u201d Druhm<\/a> bellows between frustrated simian grunts. I turn towards the head honcho for mercy, but instead, he fixes me with an eldritch stare. The words don\u2019t pass his lips\u2014they appear directly in my skull like a psychic command: \u201cBrutal death metal.\u201d He hands me a grime-encrusted CD which reeks of beer and seaweed. German brutal death metal veterans Stillbirth are responsible for this fetid package, which lies before me. It\u2019s Survival Protocol, their ninth full-length. The attached blurb promises \u201ca dystopian landscape\u201d that\u2019s \u201cequal parts destruction and party.\u201d The last time this group of fun-loving krauts appeared here with 2020\u2019s Revive The Throne, it was deemed competent, but nothing impressive<\/a>. Does Survival Protocol break this cycle? Or are we once again strapping in for forty minutes of well-crafted bludgeoning destined to dissolve into the great gory morass of brutal death mediocrity?<\/p>\n

The sound present on Survival Protocol is a particularly modern and clean take on the subgenre, which bridges the gap between brutal death, slam, and deathcore. Stillbirth employ chugtastic beatdown riffs and dexterous chromatic tremolo runs atop ever-present double bass gallops in a way that we\u2019ve come to expect from this style. On this record, however, the band showcases some more melodic and prog-leaning moments alongside impressive technicality in a way that reminds me of countrymates Cytotoxin. The best songs weave between stankface-inducing over-the-top slam breakdowns and surprisingly tasteful guitar harmonies (\u201cBaptized in Blood,\u201d \u201cSacrificial Slaughter\u201d). There\u2019s just something magical about the juxtaposition of impressive death metal licks and stupidly gauche \u201cBREEE\u201d frog noises. The band showcases a sly songwriting wit that, when deployed correctly, brings a grin to my jaded face. Unfortunately, not every slab of meat on this cornucopia of carnage has festered appropriately.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue with Survival Protocol is that large sections fall into a kind of monotonous death metal \u201cgrey zone,\u201d where everything is maximally heavy, so none of it feels particularly impactful. I appreciate Stillbirth\u2019s take on the classic \u201cLiege of Inveracity\u201d riff when it surfaces for premium ape-brained satisfaction (\u201cExistence Erased,\u201d \u201cCult of the Green\u201d), but you can only hear so many slam riffs into tech-adjacent fast riffs into more slam riffs before things start to dull a bit. To the band\u2019s credit, guitarists Leonard Willi and Szymon Skiba are clear devotees of the ancient texts, and their riffcraft is consistently enjoyable. They demonstrate both instrumental mastery and a playful energy that\u2019s just fun to bask in. This shines most on the closer, \u201cKill to Rule,\u201d which is built around a repeating chord progression and gives both players room to show off with dueling leads. Unfortunately, standout moments like this aren\u2019t consistent, and even after repeated listens, I find myself struggling to remember which parts belong to which songs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not for lack of effort, though. Stillbirth inject bits and pieces of other musical styles here and there to keep things fresh and the pit moving. \u201cTrapped in Darkness\u201d opens with a fun electronic interlude before diving into classic brutal death riffing, while album highlight \u201cBaptized in Blood\u201d begins with a playful, salsa-inspired acoustic section that reappears during the bridge to introduce a tasty solo and melodic outro. Moments like these add welcome levity and variety to the tracklist, while also showcasing the band\u2019s solid grasp of their death metal fundamentals. Stillbirth clearly know their way around a Suffocation riff (or twenty), and their delivery of the brutal death formula on Survival Protocol is at least entertaining. It checks all the expected boxes, but it checks them well enough that the full album remains an enjoyable listen.<\/p>\n

With Survival Protocol, Stillbirth once again deliver a competent, meaty slab of brutal death\/slam that gets the job done without breaking a sweat or a boundary. The riffs are chunky, the grooves are mean, and the band\u2019s veteran polish is unmistakable. This is an album that bludgeons efficiently but rarely leaves a lasting dent. There\u2019s no question these guys know their craft. Several tracks here hit hard and hit right, but Survival Protocol ultimately feels like a victory lap rather than a challenge. It\u2019s a fun listen while it\u2019s on, and it\u2019ll get a pit moving without issue, but once the dust settles, there\u2019s not much urging me to spin it again.<\/p>\n

Rating: 2.5\/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb\/s mp3
Label: Reigning Phoenix Music<\/a>
Website: facebook.com\/StillbirthParty<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: October 31st, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I take a seat in a cramped, rusted chair. Across from me sits a gorilla in some sort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10464,5808,72387,72388,5810,48051,93,5812,61,60,278,37128,72389,563,564,72390,72391,45906,72392],"class_list":{"0":"post-121450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-2-5","9":"tag-5808","10":"tag-brutal-death-metal","11":"tag-cytotoxin","12":"tag-death-metal","13":"tag-deathcore","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-german-metal","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-music","19":"tag-oct25","20":"tag-reigning-phoenix-music","21":"tag-review","22":"tag-reviews","23":"tag-slam","24":"tag-stillbirth","25":"tag-suffocation","26":"tag-survival-protocol"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}