Taylor Young is one of the busiest people in extreme music these days. In addition to playing in Nails, Twitching Tongues, Disgrace and Eyes of the Lord while owning and operating The Pit Recording Studio, Young recently debuted his new death metal project, ZOUS. Their first EP, Pandemicon, is a solo project that features guest guitar solos from Arthur Rizk (Eternal Champion, Sumerlands), Kyle Rasmussen (Vitriol) and Cody Davidson (Sanguisugabogg).
“I was in the midst of writing earlier this year for a different new band that’s going to come out later, and had thoughts about which way it should go,” Young says. “When I ultimately decided to go a different direction with that one, I figured I could just do this too in a strictly recording capacity.”
Once things got underway, Pandemicon was written, recorded and mastered within a week. The original plan, according to Young, was to feature a different vocalist but, due to scheduling, ZOUS recruited the three guest guitarists instead.
ZOUS will hold instant appeal to old-school devotees. In addition to the cover of Autopsy’s “Torn From the Womb,” Pandemicon is inspired by the style of the past—the reverb is turned up and the brutish, doomy riffs are as subtle as clubs. Each guest guitarist appears on one of the EP’s main tracks, which lends each song a distinctive quality.
Unlike Young’s other bands, ZOUS stays far away from hardcore. It’s even noted in their Bandcamp bio, which reads “Strictly Death Metal.” Pandemicon is primitive and short, avoiding excess fat and outside genre influence. You can hear it for yourself at ZOUS’ Bandcamp—Pandemicon is streaming now.