PHARMACIST – Vertebrae After Vertebrae

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• Bands:
  PHARMACIST
• Duration: 00:36:00
• Available from: 05/29/2026
• Label:

• Hells Headbangers

Pharmacist, with “Vertebrae After Vertebrae”, return to reiterate an idea as simple as it is often forgotten: in metal, the guitar is not one element among others, but the gravitational center of the entire system. The riff does not accompany, it does not decorate, it does not fill. Command. And here he does it with a continuity and a conviction that bring the listener back to this classic concept, where everything is born and develops around guitar writing.

Moreover, this death-grind group based in Japan openly takes inspiration from one of the greatest masters in the field, namely Bill Steer of Carcass, here once again photographed in that surgically complex and at the same time grotesquely elegant style developed around the milestone “Necroticism”. It is there that Pharmacist places their ideal starting point, and from there they begin a reworking that never sounds like a simple imitation, but rather like an in-depth study and then expansion. When held against the light, the lesson of the English guitarist and composer is constantly perceived: the riff as a living, elastic organism, capable of shedding its skin even within a single musical phrase.

The name of the group continues to suggest a certain superficial irony, but it is a misdirection. Because when it comes to writing, the Pharmacists show something completely different: awareness of the fundamentals, extremely high craftsmanship and a construction ability that goes far beyond simple homage. After the success of the previous “Flourishing Extremities on Unspoiled Mental Grounds”, expectations were high, and the new album not only confirms them but relaunches them.

“Vertebrae After Vertebrae” moves as a long sequence of sections fitted together with almost mathematical precision. The guitars alternate furious bursts, denser and more mellow midtempo openings, galloping restarts, up to moments in which a pleasant thrash and classic metal vein emerges. It is not exactly an ornamental addition, but rather a now structural component of the language of the project, which has also absorbed more traditional sensibilities without distorting its extreme matrix. In this sense, it is not risky to also evoke the shadow of “Heartwork”, as a spirit of synthesis between aggression and structural clarity, however we must also remember that for some time the guitarist/singer Kyrylo Stefanskyi has been cultivating a project called Mariner in which he dedicates himself to a sort of techno-thrash with precise classic metal contaminations. It is therefore easy to think that something of that reality has flowed into the Pharmacist and into these pieces that are as elastic as they are on average compact in duration.

The result is a record that does not seek revolutions, but internal evolution. And he does it with a naturalness that impresses. The band doesn't perform live and the four years that have passed since their last work are all felt: not as empty, but as time of sedimentation, almost entirely invested in writing. Each song seems to be the result of long chiseling work on the details of the riff, on its ability to outline structures and involve. To appreciate these efforts, you need a precise predisposition: to love the death-grind of the Carcass school and recognize the riff as the true engine of extreme music. Whoever starts from there will find a rich, coherent and surprisingly vital album.

“Vertebrae After Vertebrae” is, ultimately, a statement of method: Pharmacist do not reinvent a sound, but reaffirm its beating heart, bringing everything back to the riff, to its physicality, to its function as an engine in generating real movement. And they do it with a confidence that places them once again among the most solidly inspired realities of the contemporary extreme scene.