STILLBIRTH hailing from North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany were formed in 1999. The brutal Death Metal and Deathcore veterans released four splits, one EP, and seven full-length albums during their almost 25 years long career. Album number eight has a length of about 43 minutes, and it was mixed and mastered at Demigod Recordings. "Homo Deus" was released via US Death, Thrash, and Black Metal specialists Distortion Music Group. The album starts with a short pre-lude, before thunderous guitar riffs take over and lead into a Deathcore hammering of top quality. "The Hunt" is a short track and a mixture of mid-tempo and down-tempo parts connected by a lot of double-bass drumming and the growling vocals, which are around the low end of the guttural range. "The Hunt" immediately provides a grim atmosphere and comes with a lot of aggression and shows the direction of the album. "Disgraced" continues with the Deathcore assault with even more aggression and more pace. If any evidence is needed for that statement, listen to the relentless drumming, the blast-beats and the double-bass. The vocals vary a bit more than during the opener and include higher pitched screams and a couple of squeals. Highlights of "Disgraced" are the first huge breakdowns of the album. "Proclaim The Anarchy" starts with another short pre-lude, before transitioning into a mid-tempo pummeling with a lot of tempo and rhythm changes.

"Proclaim The Anarchy" has a lot of twists and complexity in structure, and the track is kept together excellently by the vocals and the drums. Vocalist Lukas Swiaczny shows his huge vocal range, his versatility, and the vocals are surely the highlight of the track. The title song starts strongly with dark riffing. Lead guitar parts have a significant contribution to "Homo Deus" as they provide a blood-freezing atmosphere, and the short lead guitar solo ensures melancholy in the melodies. The rhythm varies throughout the track with down-tempo parts and another breakdown. "Slaughtered And Disemboweled" focusses more on aggression than on atmosphere. The track is direct with simple, but effective guitar riffing and plenty of double-bass drumming. The vocals are kept mainly with the low growls and the tempo remains at mid-tempo for most of the track apart from the slightly slower last part of the track. "Rising From The Ashes" starts with a pre-lude that includes acoustic guitars, before powerful and grim riffing takes over. The track is a bit of a mixture between the aggression of the riffs and the vocals on one side and gloomy melodies with melancholic vibes on the other side. The dark nature of the track is intensified by the short down-tempo part.

One album feature is the use of short intros and "Autonomous Eradiction" is no exception. The intros last typically just a few seconds, and they lead straight into a hammering as "Autonomous Eradiction" is another pummeling track covering almost the whole range of different tempi and rhythms. Highlight is the drumming as Martin Grupe keeps the track expertly together. I like the fast parts of the track most, in particular the riffing. "Autonomous Eradiction" is the official video release, and the YouTube link is given below. "Seed Of Judgement" starts again very powerful riffing at down-tempo with a lot of double-bass drumming and predominantly low growls. There are a lot of twists in rhythm with faster parts including a few blast-beat attacks, but eventually the down-tempo parts remain in the memory. "Descending" is almost a bit of a counterpart to "Seed Of Judgement" as it is a fast hammering with a mixture of highly pitched screams and low growls. The basslines are very prominent during the track, culminating in a bass guitar solo with a few classical vibes at the final third of the track.

"Tribunal Of Penance" starts with a pre-lude including the guitars with a few jazzy vibes. Eventually, the track turns into a mid-tempo track with down-tempo parts. "Tribunal Of Penance" is surely a very different track compared to most of the album songs as a mixture of Death Metal with Deathcore elements meets Hardrock vibes from the 70s. Todor Manojlovic (AMIDA FALLS) is the guest guitarist on the track. The album finishes strongly with the doom-laden "Get Out". It is a super aggressive song with the riffing, the blast-beats, and the deep growls. It comes with another guest as Sanjay Kumar (WORMHOLE) provides support on guitar. Mostly at mid-tempo or at down-tempo, "Get Out" is a great finale and the song is one of the album highlights.

STILLBIRTH deliver an excellent album. "Homo Deus" has got all the ingredients which creates a great Deathcore album: the aggression, the darkness, the powerful riffing, the brutal growls, the breakdowns, and the frequent breaks in rhythm. STILLBIRTH smartly mix up the sound to keep the album fresh and dynamic. That distinguishes "Homo Deus" from other Deathcore albums where I often have that "if you know one, you know all songs" feeling. The songwriting is very mature, and the album is very well produced. STILLBIRTH set the bar very high for this year's Deathcore releases and "Homo Deus" is surely one of 2023 album highlights.