If you’ve listened to Anagnorisis before this fall, it’s probably been a while. Having initially produced some strong material during the renaissance of American extreme metal in the mid-aughts and into the 2010s (as well as launching Austin Lunn toward his long-running, beloved solo project, Panopticon), Anagnorisis took a break after their third full-length in 10 years, Peripeteia. The band’s purpose and future became unclear, eventually obscured by time and members’ other priorities.
As new-era driver Zachary Kerr suggests, though, devastating circumstances demand devastating music, and the band’s 2026 return with Caregriever fits the bill perfectly. The feral artistry on offer here – from recording techniques to unhinged riffing to wrenching vocals to the various post-production approaches meant to heighten the overall experience – deserves hours of your attention and oceans-worth of emotional energy. After just one trip through the songs, I was personally hooked, and on deeper inspection, the record welded itself high in my list of favorites this year. This is gripping music that matters. And it’s available in full this Friday, October 23.
We had an opportunity to hear from Kerr about the background and creation of Caregriever, but in the magazine, we only had half a page to let him speak, so here, we present you with the remainder of the story, as Kerr told it, alongside a full-album stream. Take it all in, by all means, but do so when you have the time to be fully available to this music. If you let it, it will disturb and deconstruct you. We’re all getting older; we’re all experiencing loss and confusion and weariness and anger. Caregriever can remind you that you’re not alone, that we’re in this together… and that you are definitely also very alone, and every bit of pain is your own to bear without respite. It’s harrowing, and it’s extraordinary.
Decibel: The first question has to be: How have you guys been doing for the past several years? How did you all go from an apparent pause to deciding to write and record this new music?
Zachary Kerr: Things have been relatively good for all of us: career growth, marriages, children, and so on. We’ve all had a lot of time for personal growth and development, as well as loss and heartbreak, which I believe is one of the main reasons we’re having this conversation.
As far as musical activity, our bassist and drummer have been extremely active, with multiple projects for each of them. Our guitarist has a career in audio and has been very active, but on the other side of the console. Until I started working on this record a few years ago, I was completely inactive, living in a situation where music seemed like a distant memory.
The Caregriever lineup is four of the five of us from the Peripeteia release: Josh Mumford on bass, Cody McCoy on drums, Zak Denham on guitar, and myself on vocals. We amicably parted ways with our dear friend Sam Hartman, who played keys with us since long before the first full-length. The band was already at a level of uncertainty, and Sam was ready to focus on other interests and aspects of his life. We had every intention of continuing on, but his departure, coupled with our own internal struggles, left too deep a hole for us to climb out of at that time.
This new record, Caregriever, was born out of the need to have a creative outlet at a time when I felt like I was drowning and sinking deeper every day. A now-dear friend and labelmate, Niels Riethorst of the incredible Dutch black metal band Beenkerver, reached out to me via social media after receiving a copy of our last record, Peripeteia, years after its release. The record had struck him deeply enough that he wanted to discuss its subject matter and express his appreciation for the emotionally raw and honest approach to our specific brand of black metal that we had poured into that release. In that conversation, unbeknownst to either of us, Anagnorisis was brought back to life. He lent me a hand at a time when I needed it most, and I owe him an immense debt. As the record began to take shape, Niels became part of it as well, contributing lyrics and vocals to one of the songs. It felt incredibly fitting that the person who unknowingly helped bring this band back to life would ultimately leave his own mark on its return.
Initially, Caregriever was going to be a solo project under the same moniker. I pieced together demos as best I could, but I knew I was going to need the assistance of someone far greater than myself when it came to mixing and mastering. I went to Nashville to spend a weekend with Zak, and we worked through some corrections, arrangements, and so forth. By the end of the weekend, we were standing in his kitchen and both came to the realization that this sounded more or less like an Anagnorisis record. We started talking about what that would mean if we brought the band back to life. We agreed that the pros outweighed the cons and had a call with the other guys to see if they were still interested. Everyone was on board, and here we are. I wasn’t sure what to expect coming out of such a long dormancy, and the support thus far has been overwhelming.
Decibel: What was the breakdown of roles when it came to putting these new songs together, both in the writing stages and in the performances and recording sessions?
Kerr: I wrote the initial bones of the album: guitar, bass, vocals, and programmed drums. The concept was developed, the lyrics were written, and the vocals were recorded. The atmosphere of the album was there, but it was ready for Zak to fill in the muscle, trim the fat, and give it the structure that only he could. Zak and I share an incredible friendship and musical connection, and I believe his absence from the songwriting aspect of his musical career over the past 10 years was a large part of why I remained dormant as well. We don’t share bad ideas with each other, just challenges that we can either make work or move aside and focus on the next thing we can achieve.
Once we had the updated demos of my earlier work to a point where we felt it was time to start recording, we scheduled a few days in Nashville at Top Track Studios. We got the demos to Josh and Cody and knocked out the drums and bass over the course of two days. Zak worked as the engineer, while I worked as the producer, trying to keep things familiar with the original work while letting Zak work his magic and get the best possible performances out of Josh and Cody.
We’re incredibly fortunate to have such a talented rhythm section in this band. They came in like pros, and even though they had not played a single note of the record together—none of us had at that point—they simply knocked it out of the park. Seriously, I can’t believe either of them even have to work day jobs; they’re both incredibly talented musicians and wonderful humans. They truly balance out the band and remind Zak and me that we don’t have to exclusively live in the headspace of the material we write about.
Once the drums and bass were recorded, edited, and prepared for mixing, with the assistance of Mike Low and Enrique Ferrer, Zak and I were ready to start the deconstruction of the mess I had made of the guitars and vocals. We spent countless nights in my basement drinking endless pots of coffee, writing and rewriting, discussing life, and discussing our opinions on black metal. This continued for far longer than I care to admit, but without those endless late nights, we wouldn’t have this record. It’s something we’re all incredibly proud of.
Decibel: This music feels a bit harsher, more immediately confrontational than your earlier material. I’m interested in your perspective on what you were creating and communicating while these songs were coming to life.
Kerr: The story of these songs doesn’t come from a good place. The feelings conveyed in the record don’t come from a good place. If we were to ever release the demos, you’d see that a lot of the material is less thoughtfully crafted and more just the color red. It was visceral. It was ugly. It was exactly where my head was at the time. As far as the vocals, I wanted them to feel harsher at times, like early-era Skinny Puppy, without the brilliance of Ogre’s vocal processing, of course—easily the best to ever do it. The discomfort is intentional. The feeling and subject matter demanded it. There were times when I even questioned our approach to them, but we held strong to the vision, and I feel like in the end we landed on something we were all happy to stand behind.
Decibel: Are there specific parts in these songs (either in the writing, performances or recording process) that you’re particularly excited about the results?
Kerr: This is an extremely difficult question for me to answer. Its basis could be considered an egotistical question—not by your hand, but by asking me, as the author and storyteller, to gloat about the elements that I’m pleased with. To answer this is to turn my back on my own self-loathing and face a more mature version of myself. The honest answer is that the whole thing excites me. I had never done anything like this up to this point, and then all of a sudden we had a return record. A record that’s powerful and commanding. A record that’s emotional and deep. A record that’s uncomfortably raw, honest, and real. Anyone associated with me will tell you that no one thinks lower of me than myself, but in this specific situation, I feel like an artist for maybe the first time in my life. I created something that I genuinely believe in, and I got to do it with people I love and respect immensely. Regardless of its success once it has been released into the world, this is one of the great triumphs of my life. It was my pain, healed—or at least confronted—with the people closest to me, and for that, whatever happens from here is far less important than the art we made together.
Decibel: I wanted to ask if you feel comfortable discussing specifically what you’re drawing from, when it comes to the title of the record.
Kerr: Unfortunately, the title Caregriever is not formed out of some simple set of generic circumstances. Fuck, I wish it were, man. Honestly. I want to share every element of this story, but I also want to leave enough space for the listener to find their own meaning in the lyrics—to apply them to their own experiences with sadness, grief, loss, and everything that comes with them. [Kerr expounds on the lyrical and emotional content of these songs, from his perspective, within the pages of the magazine; for his further words on the topic, check out the article.]
Decibel: How active is Anagnorisis likely to be, moving forward? Will you be playing this stuff live in the near future? Are you expecting to keep working on new music, or are you taking it all one step at a time for now?
Kerr: We’re planning on being as active as we can fit into our now-heightened responsibilities and busy lives. We have so many people backing us and supporting us that we want to not only find success for ourselves, but for everyone involved—for the people who believed in us and our return when a lot of people were skeptical. Again, every decision we’re making is through that lens of gratitude.
Stefan at Vendetta Records is handling the EU release; JR and Steve at Bölverk Collective are handling the domestic CDs and, in part, the vinyl release, along with our own imprint, Negative Reflections. Eric at So Below Productions is handling the cassette release, Stavros at Waste Management Booking is handling our booking, and Dave at Earsplit PR is handling the campaign. All of these people are incredible and have given so much to the underground metal scene. We want to make their belief in us worth their time, too.
As far as live performances, we have a slew of shows booked through the end of 2026 and into 2027. We have at least one festival booked in the spring that will be nestled into the middle of a tour, and we’re always looking for like-minded bands, tours, and festivals to partner with and be a part of. As far as new music is concerned, I have more material than I know what to do with, but I’m not sure how much of it is Anagnorisis-applicable. I would like us to finally get on a cadence of releases that makes some kind of logical sense. But nothing we’ve ever done with this band has been under the veil of logic. It’s always been tragedy that draws us together, and maybe that, too, is the spirit of Caregriever.
Caregriever is out Friday October 23 through Bölverk Collective. Check out Anagnorisis on Bandcamp, too.
