REVIEW: Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds [2025]

Artist: Extortionist
Album: Stare into the Seething Wounds

Extortionist are—and have been for a while—one of my favorite bands to try and explain to people who haven’t heard them before. A band that started as one of the downtempo deathcore movement’s flag bearers—after transforming through a deathcore-meets-djent phase—are now one of the only bands I can think of that can be accurately described as “yeah, say you took, like…Bodysnatcher, and then combined it with Alice in Chains and Incubus.”

Not only is it a fairly accurate description—it works pretty damn well.

Now somewhere between grunge and metalcore, Extortionist give us what stands as their most robust and ambitious release to date with Stare into the Seething Wounds, a record that delivers nearly a filler-free hour of everything from somber, brooding atmosphere to sinew-snapping breakdowns and battle royale-inducing fight riffs. The only question that needs answering is this: in a band whose discography transcends multiple styles within heavy music, where does their latest—and longest—release stack up?

Stare into the Seething Wounds feels, at its core, like the logical conclusion to the stylistic shift brought about with 2019’s “Dirty Hands.” Clocking in just shy of 50 minutes, it isn’t an overstatement to say that Extortionist spend more time than not on their 2025 record demonstrating just how ignorantly heavy they can get—but these moments are beautifully broken up by forays into grungy, almost psychedelic rock. This is probably best showcased between the record’s eponymous introduction and track two, “Broken Glass Aftermath.” Where the former boasts slowly plucked, melancholic chords and a droning atmosphere almost suffocating in its ambivalence, “Broken Glass Aftermath” doesn’t waste much time in diving into a punchy, coarse two step and a series of tumultuous, raucous breakdowns. Throughout Stare into the Seething Wounds, percussion toggles from heavy-handed and plodding (“Starve”) to quick, punchy and precise (“Lobotomize Me”), with rare breaks in a subtle, somber state on songs like “Submit to Skin,” where Extortionist take a breath to more fully indulge the moments of grungy whimsy that pop up throughout the record. Where the percussion is quick and precise, the fretwork follows—built on tight, immolating riffs that take rapid and unpredictable segues into spine-splitting breakdowns. “Do You See It?” Deserves some praise here—with segments of the song highlighting a gritty, distorted and dissonant guitar that roars over moderate percussion and dense bass, and others where the guitar backs off, looming with shrill, atmospheric notes that match the song’s numerous vocal quirks, twists and turns. The punchline is that Extortionist’s instrumentation set a big goal for itself in being able to convincingly master heavy-handed metalcore and dreary, hazy grunge—a goal that was handily met at every point.

It would be remiss to describe how well Extortionist manage their unique blending of genres without highlighting the vocal prowess that seals the deal, so to speak. Frontman Ben Hoagland is, after all, the primary reason Stare into the Seething Wounds works as well as it does—including working better than the band’s previous iterations of the same style. Where Hoagland is boisterous and pissed throughout Stare into the Seething Wounds, he is pissed, and there is no better example of that than “Starve,” which is (hopefully) to become a staple in the band’s live set. However, its songs like “Do You See It?” Alongside “Detriment” and “Invisible Scars (Part III)” that highlight Hoagland’s diversity. Rather than boast a handful of songs that are majority-rock with little-to-no metalcore flare, these songs highlight just how well Hoagland and the remainder of Extortionist are able to weave the two sounds and styles with one another in the same song, allowing for both heaviness and that pervasive, gritty unease and groove to coexist. It is Hoagland’s profound talent with singing and all manner of screams and shouts that makes this blend work so well.

Stare into the Seething Wounds sees Extortionist reach their final form—at least for now. While the release is comprehensive, and gives the listener a lot of material to find themselves lost in, it might be just a little too long—as the otherwise-immaculate twists and turns between styles that shine on the records closing third find their impact dulled slightly by coming after a half hour or more of Extortionist applying steady sonic pressure. With that in mind, it’s hard to pick a single song that could be cut from Stare into the Seething Wounds, making it more likely that the record’s pacing is a little off-balanced, moreso than there being an abundance of filler—which there certainly is not. Ultimately, Stare into the Seething Wounds rivals The Decline as Extortionist’s strongest body of work—and is certainly one of the most unique takes on metalcore making waves right now.

8.5/10
For Fans Of: Bodysnatcher, Distinguisher, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Fox Lake
By: Connor Welsh