The Artist of the Week : Comatose (Philippines)
There’s a certain kind of death metal that doesn’t care for trends, doesn’t bow to production gloss, and doesn’t scream for your attention because it knows it’s going to grab your throat anyway. That’s the kind of death metal Comatose plays. And for those who’ve been paying attention, this band has been circling like a vulture in the underground for over two decades.
Line-up:
Bellz Lee - guitars, vocals
Milojan Mondejar - guitars
Serge Enso - bass
Jan Llever - drums
Comatose was born in the July heat of 2003, not in some legendary European scene or North American hotbed, but in Cebu City, Philippines, a place more known for its beaches than blastbeats. It started humbly, as a student project inside a local university, where four young metalheads with a thirst for sonic destruction began channeling their influences into something raw, sinister, and unmistakably their own.
Their first strike came in early 2004 with Pure Evil & Blasphemy, a lo-fi, tape-traded demo that screamed of Morbid Angel worship and basement rehearsals, the good kind, the kind you rewind to hear that one divebomb again. In 2007, they returned with a second demo, Plague Bearer. The band’s lineup had shifted by then, the usual fate of early extreme metal units and by that point only Bellz Lee, the guitarist and vocalist, remained from the original lineup. But that was all Comatose really needed: a vision keeper, someone who understood that this band wasn't a phase or a school project anymore. It was war.
The next chapter took longer to unfold. In 2011, they recorded what was to be their debut album, The Ultimate Revenge. But nothing came easy for Comatose. Financial constraints, distribution issues, the usual metalhead obstacles in a country with limited infrastructure for extreme music, all of it delayed the album's release. It wouldn’t be until 2015, a full four years later, that the album saw official light through Satanath Records, a label with a nose for the raw and the righteous. And when it dropped, it hit hard. The riffs were charred, the solos venomous, and Bellz’s voice sounded like it had crawled from beneath the oldest catacomb in Cebu.
But they weren’t done. In 2018, Comatose emerged once more with The Ungodly Lamentations, their second full-length, again through Satanath. If the first album had the energy of unrestrained violence, this one showed evolution; not in the sense of cleaning up or going soft, but in the sense of sharpening the knives. The songwriting was leaner, the structures more ritualistic. The vocals were deeper, the guitars more hell-bent. That same year, they teamed up with legendary Florida death metal band Diabolic for a split release, which quietly circulated among the heads who knew where to look.
And then... silence.
For seven long years, Comatose disappeared. No album, no shows, no rehearsal room noise leaking onto social media. The band faded back into the mist, as if they had been some fever dream of the Southeast Asian death metal underground. Rumors floated. Some thought they’d disbanded. Others figured it was the long, slow grind of life pulling the band members into jobs, bills, families, the usual enemies of riff-based darkness.
But Comatose wasn’t dead. They were dormant. And now, in 2025, they’ve come back swinging a bloodied scythe.
"The Unhallowed Congregation", their third full-length album, dropped on May 21 via Satanath Records in a collaborative release with WP And RO Productions. It’s not just a comeback, it’s a reckoning. Nine tracks. Thirty-two minutes. No filler. No compromise. Just old school death metal the way it was meant to be: rotten, aggressive, unapologetic. With Bellz still at the helm and joined by Milojan Mondejar on guitars, Serge Enso on bass, and Jan Llever on drums, Comatose sound more cohesive and deadly than ever.
And if you’re into the classics, the Florida bloodbath of Deicide, the twisted riff science of Morbid Angel, the militarized blasphemy of Vader, or the icy dread of early Hypocrisy; this record is going to hit you like a coffin lid slammed shut.
This is the story of a band that refused to die. A band that built its legacy far from the big tours and glossy magazines. A band that waited seven years in total silence, only to return with their most vicious statement yet.
Next, we're going to plunge into "The Unhallowed Congregation" track by track and see what these Cebuano death dealers have summoned from the void. And later, we'll pick the standout cut from the album and give it the full Metal Detector breakdown.
You ready? Because Comatose sure as hell is.
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The new Comatose record moves fast. Thirty two minutes, nine cuts, no padding, the kind of death metal built on instinct, memory, and muscle. The riffs feel like they were played in a hot room at volume stun, not assembled by grid editing. That checks out when you look at how long this thing was simmering. The band tracked it in Cebu between October 2023 and December 2024, with guitarist vocalist Bellz Lee at the production helm and engineer Glenn Bryan Alonzo handling the mix and master. Artwork is by Herm Bensi, whose cover turns liturgical decay into something that looks like a ritual crime scene painting, the perfect doorway into the album’s necro liturgy.
Release timing has two layers worth noting for collectors. The band’s own Bandcamp lists an April 13 2025 digital release, effectively the first time fans could hear the full set. The official label edition, a co release through Satanath Records in partnership with WP And RO Productions, streeted May 21 2025, with physical bundles that also tie back to the older albums for anyone catching up on the catalog. If you saw preorder language with price shifts after May 21, that was tied to the label drop schedule.
Spin it front to back and the sequencing is smart. Scrolls Of Profanity opens the record on a quick strike of tremolo tension and throat scoured vocal lines that feel like they are read straight from some forbidden liturgy, but the band resists the urge to go full blast immediately. Instead they set a stalking mid tempo that lets the guitar voicings cut through. When Descent To Necropolis hits, the drumming starts to fracture into quick bursts and gravity drops out under the riff, giving you that early 90s US death metal vertigo. The phrasing in the fills and the way the riff returns after the quick tempo spikes is where you hear the discipline that comes from living inside these songs through a long recording window.
Horrors Beyond Horrors stretches out a little more, one of the record’s slightly longer runtimes, and it uses that space to swing between chug rooted patterns and more acidic, climbing lines that nod toward Morbid Angel without cloning them. Bellz layers vocal barks and deeper gutturals in a way that recalls that split vocal tradition fans of Deicide latch onto, a lineage that has shadowed Comatose since the early demos.
The title track The Unhallowed Congregation is lean and mean, riding a riff that feels carved for the stage. You can hear why the band put their name on it. It is one of the album’s most immediate songs, built for head movement and chant energy, and the solo section cuts fast without overstaying. The production choice here, keeping guitars raw rather than stacked into a modern wall, lets the picking noise ride up in the mix. That keeps the old school grit intact.
Mid record, Arena Of Death and Eternal Life Eternal Lies form the violence core. The former snaps to a marching pattern that almost feels like a pit conductor, then kicks blasts in short controlled bursts. The latter plays with contrast between sustained chord stabs and quick saw tooth tremolo clusters, and lyrically it leans into the anti dogma streak that has run through Comatose writing since the early years. That anti religious lash was already visible on earlier releases and it still burns here.
Face The Reaper is under three minutes and hits like a set piece you would drop late in a live set when the crowd needs one more shove. Short sustained vocal holds over rapid kick clusters give it a nasty snap. That clears space for Fallen Ones Of The Dead Light, a track that creeps in with a grim minor figure and then erupts. The rhythm guitars here are slightly more articulated than on the opener, suggesting some evolution in how Comatose are layering their two guitar voices in 2025 versus the earlier single guitarist focus.
Closer Condemn To Darkness is the record’s time warp moment. It sits at the back half of the album for a reason. It is the cut where all the Comatose signatures gather, from the guttural main vocal to the grinding riff engine to the flash solo that refuses to resolve politely. Listeners on the label page have already gravitated toward this one and I get why. It sums the record up and it leaves abrasion ringing in your ears after the runtime ends.
The full program clocks just a hair under thirty three minutes depending on source, tight enough that repeat plays are inevitable. Short records reward obsessive listening, and in the streaming era that is a tactical win for underground bands competing for earshare.
Comatose in context, past to present
To understand how this album lands, you have to roll back through the catalog. The debut The Ultimate Revenge finally came out in December 2015 through Satanath Records after sitting recorded earlier, and it captures Comatose in their raw ascendant phase. The mix is sparer, the drums more cavernous, the attack closer to the cracked energy of their 2000s demo period. Songs like the title track and Plague Bearer show the band leaning hard into US style riffing filtered through Southeast Asian grit.
By 2018 the band sharpened up on The Ungodly Lamentations, again tied to Satanath in a co release configuration that brought in Grinder Cirujano Records and Rebirth the Metal Productions for broader underground reach. Reviews at the time called out the Deicide and Morbid Angel DNA directly and noted the dual vocal bite, a step beyond the debut’s more singular roar. Runtime stayed tight, under thirty minutes, which became part of the band’s identity, get in, blaspheme, get out.
What changes in 2025 is not genre allegiance but command. The Unhallowed Congregation keeps the old school template, yet the performances feel more locked and the guitar interplay richer, which makes sense with the current four piece lineup anchored by Bellz Lee and joined by Milojan Mondejar on second guitar, Serge Enso on bass, and Jan Llever on drums. Production is still raw by design but you can hear separation that was not as present on the debut, while holding onto the underground aesthetic fans expect from a Cebu born death metal act that never surrendered to polish.
If you are mapping listening order for new fans: start with the new album while the buzz is hot, then drop back to The Ungodly Lamentations for the bridge era, then rewind to The Ultimate Revenge for origin context. That arc will let you hear how the anti religious lyrical thread, the early Florida influences, and the move from one guitarist core to a tighter dual guitar strike all evolve across time.
My pick: Condemn To Darkness
Every Comatose album has that one track that feels like a statement of intent. On The Ultimate Revenge it was the title cut, a viciously focused riff machine. On The Ungodly Lamentations you could argue for Cursed Messiah if you wanted the anti dogma punch. On The Unhallowed Congregation the honor goes to Condemn To Darkness. It is the closer but it functions like a banner. The tempo patience in the opening measures lets the guitars breathe. When the blasts land they are earned. Bellz pushes his vocal into a ripping upper texture that cuts across the main guttural, echoing the multi voice attacks reviewers once compared to Deicide era dual layering. The lead break does the classic death metal trick: climbing scalar heat that never fully resolves before the riff re enters, making the return heavier. Fans are already flagging it as a favorite on the label stream, and I am with them. This is the track I would feature on Metal Detector socials to hook new listeners, especially those who grew up on 90s death metal and need proof that the Cebu underground still spits fire.
