Review: Pharmacist – Vertebrae After Vertebrae

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 29th May 2026 Gruesome Japanese death metal manglers Pharmacist have caused quite a stir in the scene with some of their previous releases, particularly 2022’s ‘Flourishing Extremities on Unspoiled Mental Grounds’, but their new record ‘Vertebrae After Vertebrae’ looks to be their finest, grossest work yet. They’ve been a little quiet over the past four years, considering the plethora of splits they’ve made in the past, but they’ve obviously been honing this new album to perfection. It is out this week through Hells Headbangers. It’s the ugly grindy flavour to Pharmacist’s death metal that really catches my attention again and again. Imagine very early Carcass but with a lot more groove, a swampy monstrosity that grinds and bubbles with fetid expulsions of gory death metal, and you’ve got opener ‘Propelling Inwards’ in a nutshell. That sound is carried on throughout the record, from the sickeningly heavy ‘Endogenica’ to the gurgling rage of…