There are rare moments in this miserable little existence where a band releases something that forces you to slam the brakes on your day and give them your full, undivided attention. Not because of hype or clout or any of the usual bullshit, but because the music itself radiates that unmistakable shift — the sound of a band tearing free of their old skin and revealing something far more dangerous underneath.
That was my exact experience the moment The Mortificatio by Tria Prima kicked in.
Having already reviewed their EP Three Primes of Alchemy way back in February of this year, and claimed that:
“… what you get is something so different and unique that you realise that you might just be listening to one of the breakout bands of 2025.”
I’ll admit it — I was itching to find out whether they’d live up to that praise. I know I’m just some gobshite with a website, but still… when you stick your neck out for a band, you want to see them deliver.
So, with great anticipation, I jammed in the earbuds, cranked the volume to the point where my phone warns me that deafness is imminent — to which I respond, “Mate, I was a drummer for 20 years, you’re about 15 years too late” — and hit play.
And what greeted me was astonishment.
If Three Primes of Alchemy had:
“… elements of early Sepultura and Slayer – especially South of Heaven, which is my favourite Slayer – flying around the place like bodies trapped in a never-ending mosh-pit,”
then The Mortificatio is an entirely different beast. A gargantuan, blood-soaked, fanged monstrosity that has crawled up from the deepest pit it could find purely to eat your fucking head.
This album is huge. In every sense of the word. Tria Prima’s sound has grown so much in the past nine months that if it were a professional boxer, you’d be eyeing the syringe box under the bed. This is Death Metal at a scale massive enough to fill the Grand Canyon tenfold.
Everything is bigger.
The riffs.
The drums.
The bass.
The sense of scope.
The sheer weight of the songwriting.
And then there’s the way Anira Star is incorporated — not on every track, but when she appears, she brings a spectral, angelic counterpoint to Ruslan Hrytsiuta’s possession-fuelled growls and strangled cries. It isn’t a gimmick. It isn’t window dressing. It’s a weapon. And it elevates the entire record into something downright biblical.
Musically, Tria Prima have gone absolutely feral. The riffs hit like avalanches — massive, grinding walls of guitar that feel carved from granite. There’s a weight to them that’s almost architectural, like they’re building temples from distortion and then smashing those temples with the next riff that comes along. The melodic sensibilities from the EP are still present, but here they’re submerged in something far more colossal, rising only when the band wants to twist the knife in deeper.
If Three Primes of Alchemy was the sound of a band finding their footing, The Mortificatio is the sound of a band whose drummer has decided to declare absolute war on the kit. The blasts are savage, but it’s the sense of scale that really hits you — towering tom patterns that sound like siege engines rolling through flaming ruins, kicks that pulse like the heartbeat of some ancient, slumbering titan, and cymbal work that slices through the mix with surgical precision. The production gives everything room to breathe, but nothing feels relaxed. Every note is a clenched fist.
What really makes this album so fucking exciting, though, is the sense of intention. Tria Prima aren’t writing songs — they’re constructing movements. The pacing is phenomenal, each track shifting just enough to feel distinct while maintaining the same blood-soaked gravitational pull. You get those sections where everything slows to a doom-laden crawl, molten and suffocating, before the band erupts back into carnage with enough force to blow your eyebrows into orbit. It’s cinematic, but without any of the bloated theatrics that plague lesser bands attempting the same thing. This is storytelling through destruction, atmosphere through pressure and release, mythmaking through riffs and punishing rhythms.
By the time the final track ends, you’re left in that beautiful state of disorientation where you’re not entirely sure what the fuck just happened, but you know you want more of it, immediately. The Mortificatio is an album that demands repeat listens — not because it’s dense or difficult, but because it’s alive. Every spin reveals some new twist of melody, some new rhythmic shift, some new unhinged vocal moment, some new haunting fragment of Anira’s ghostlit harmonies drifting through the smoke.
Tria Prima haven’t just lived up to the promise of Three Primes of Alchemy. They’ve obliterated it. This is the sound of a band stepping fully into their power — and doing it with the confidence, ambition, and sheer fucking ferocity of musicians who know exactly what they’re capable of.
The Mortificatio by Tria Prima is available now via the groups Bandcamp page.
CHOICE CUT: Arx Fatalis
BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: A colossal statement of intent. Tria Prima didn’t merely improve — they ascended, expanded, and carved their name into the landscape with absolute authority.
