Casket – In the Long Run We Are All Dead

Casket is back! Hereby I’m reffering to the German death metal band, formed back in 1990 in the city of Reutlingen. For 35 years, Casket has been a reliable source of classic death metal. Since the very beginnings of this long-standing band, they’ve been delivering death metal with savagery, fury and relentless brutality, but also with a great dose of enthusiasm and nonchalance. Not much has changed since the beginning of the 90s and the release of their 1991 demo Ne Vollkanne.

As we move to 2026, the German trio led by Schorsch (guitar & vocals), Susi Z (bass), and Marinko (drums), with the support by Neckbreaker Records, presents its fifth album, In The Long Run We Are All Dead. It arrives five years after their comeback EP, and the album, consisting of eleven brutal and uncomprimising tracks, where the moniker itself referes to a quote by economist John Maynard Keynes, ‘In the Long Run We Are All Dead’.

In The Long Run We Are All Dead is unforgiving and uncomprimising eleven-tracker (with near forty-five-minutes playing time) blast of an old-school death metal heaviness and brutality. I like the fact that the album is consistent, coherent and in the line of their previous releases. In The Long Run We Are All Dead balances blistering speed with doom-like breaks and hard-hitting, and groovy movements. From the opening “The Will To Comply” to the closing “Graveyard Stomper, we are getting bombarded by numerous vicious weird retro riffs, catchy and cruising rhythm section, fairly consistent deep grinding vocals, crushing low-end bass and precise, clinical and consistently professional and varied drumming. Two most preferred and most-played songs for me would include; “Hammer, Knife, Spade”, mainly due to its merciless rhythm and razor-sharp riffing, and the catchy and the groovy album closer, “Graveyard Stomper” – a perfect track perfect for band’ future live performances.

The production is robust and powerful (without being over-polished), and with a prominent bass presence, and an overall raw feeling. The cover artwork is again crafted by Roberto Toderico Art! It is a brutal, old-school death metal image reflecting the album’s themes of morbidity and the inevitability of death.

In summation; one can safely say that In The Long Run We Are All Dead is a piece of an old-school death metal which prioritizes authenticity over modern trends. Thus, if you listen to Casket, you listen to no trends, no hypes, just honest old-school death metal, the way it was meant to be! Recommended for Bolt Thrower, Incantation, Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Grave and similar death metal pioneering acts.

Neckbreaker Records has released both CD- and vinyl versions as well as the corresponding merchandise. For additional information on this particular album visit bandcamp here.