Mystical Death Announces “Across” As Its New Album | Breaking The Mold
It seems that the second half of 2026 is bringing a lot of new developments within the so-called “White Metal” genre, and one of those new developments is the recent announcement regarding the upcoming album by the Dutch band Mystical Death, who—through the well-known label Rottweiler Records—will release their new album titled “Across”, set for official release on November 6.
But Mystical Death has a story to tell, and part of that story began just a couple of years ago, when the mysterious man known as “Mystic” decided to get to work and found this project—aptly named Mystical Death—focusing primarily on death metal, but with technical and progressive elements, as the band describes itself.
Mystic is the one-man band who does it all; he plays every instrument, programs, composes, records, and produces. That work resulted in a debut EP titled “Carnation”, released in 2024 as a completely independent digital release.
Featuring five exquisitely constructed songs which maintained a gritty, old school Death Metal atmosphere while displaying remarkable technicality and adventurous spirit, Carnation drew the attention of renowned American label, Rottweiler Records. Rottweiler promptly welcomed Mystical Death into their ranks and reissued Carnation, complete with a bonus track, in late 2025. With Rottweiler’s support and distribution Mystical Death began to accrue critical acclaim from around the Metal world. Now it’s time to release their first full-length album, simply titled “Across”.
On “Across”, Mystical Death is no longer just Mystic. He is now joined by David Diefenderfer on growling vocals and Vivi Fox on female vocals. The rest of the music remains the sole work of the mysterious Mystic.
We can hear the result throughout an album that really packs a punch, demonstrating a positive musical evolution—moving from the primitive death metal style of their first EP toward something much more elaborate in terms of both composition and production.
Basically, one could say that Mystical Death moves from the ordinary to the extravagant in a certain way. Their sound isn’t confined to the extreme but veers into various “crazy” directions from track to track. We had the chance to hear a preview of the album, and we can say that Mystical Death’s “Across” isn’t strange but rather original—and in a certain way, it undoubtedly rewrites the rules of death metal with a touch of ingenuity.
With an emphasis on old-school death metal, “Apopheia” bares its teeth right from the album’s opening with a certain Grindcore vibe, and what follows with “Laniakea” stays true to Death Metal, but with bursts that are completely out of character for the genre—consisting of very “pop”-sounding keyboards, so to speak, and even a saxophone here and there—though by no means do these eccentricities detract from Mystical Death’s sound.
With “Inundant”, the Death Metal aspect deepens, but as we can hear throughout the album, there’s a fusion with other genres—such as certain Eastern and ambient influences, you might say—which justify the “progressive” and “technical” labels that Mystical Death cultivates. It even has a certain grindcore edge, as in the case of “Lacerate”, which hits us with full force.
The opening of “Empathy” is already… really wild, but no, don’t skip the track. Shortly after it starts—and after the saxophone kicks in (again)—a torrent of riffs and blast beats hits you, the kind that crush your brain, while “Kurtosi” follows a similar path but at a different pace and speed.
Then there’s “Across”, the title track of the album—powerful and catchy, with a certain leaning toward the melodic and classic elements of Metal—while “Thalassa” stands out as the most interesting track on the album with its slow tempo, enhanced by Vixi Fox’s clean vocals, which undoubtedly give it a more doom and progressive feel.
The album closes with two instrumentals: “Voyagers” and “Sanctus”, two pieces that, in their own way, showcase Mystical Death’s imagination and compositional prowess.
As an album, “Across” strays quite far from the canon of what Death Metal is supposed to be, attempting a subtle and tentative expression that differs from everything customary in the genre. Even so, the project still maintains an identity rooted in the extreme, and that tension between these two sides is something that doesn’t quite resolve itself. In any case, the effort is worthwhile.
Since all the music has been composed, performed, mixed, and mastered by the band’s central figure, Mystic—who also created the album cover and wrote the lyrics for all the songs—Mystical Death boasts a powerfully unified and unique vision, which is certainly true.
Could AI have been used? It’s possible in terms of programming certain sounds or instruments, though it’s clearly not something that can be definitively determined. In any case, we trust that, at its core, Mystical Death is built entirely on Mystic’s human and creative input. The result may not be entirely effective, perhaps. The interplay between different sounds combined with death metal deserves much more precise refinement, though in terms of originality and creativity, Mystical Death shows a lot of promise.
Clearly, the focus is on versatility and the sudden shifts in mood within each track on “Across”, and that is its greatest strength.
November 6 is the release date for “Across” via Rottweiler Records, and in the meantime, the band has released the track “Apopheia” as a preview, which we’ve included below to give you an idea of what we’re talking about, along with the band’s social media links…
https://www.facebook.com/RottweilerRecords
https://www.facebook.com/MysticalDeathOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/mysticaldeathofficial
