With their anticipated debut full length Seraphic Punishment in 2022, Fargo’s Maul dropped one of the most memorable death metal earworms of the year. Coupled with the band’s relentless drive for bringing their music to the people live throughout the country, Maul’s reputation rapidly grew and a pact with 20 Buck Spin was scrawled in blood. The initial fruit of that union was delivered late in 2023 with the Desecration And Enchantment promo tape. And now all roads have led to Maul’s second album, In The Jaws Of Bereavement.

While the rotten death metal heart at the core of the band is without question, the band have no shame in their game when it comes to embracing a penchant for the heavier side of hardcore with mosh-ready riffs and crowd-killing breaks. In The Jaws Of Bereavement manages to so skillfully fuse the eerie apparitions and melodic lead work of death metal’s greats with the punishing rhythms of hardcore’s violent power it feels completely organic. It’s all tied together by the unhinged vocal prowess of the human wrecking ball Garrett Alvarado. At it’s putrescent core Maul is a live band, and the songs on In The Jaws Of Bereavement are adeptly tailored to the environs of a dank club sweltering from the energy created through this music and a crowd living for nothing but the moment and the swell of bodies on bodies. The production here is clear and in one’s face, and allows the band to expand their unique blend of old and new to become Midwest death incarnate.