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Bound in Skin, Written in Pain: Next to Eternity - Book of the Dead (Track Review) Released: 2/20/26


Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 2018, Next to Eternity is the brainchild of vocalist Sam Rodriguez, a deathcore/metalcore outfit that fuses the raw aggression of old-school metalcore with the precision of modern metal. Anchored by Rodriguez's harrowing screams, Gianni Basile's haunting harmonies, Mike Spillman's crushing guitar work, and the relentless debut of their new drummer, Christopher Lee, the band has carved out a sound that feels both familiar and refreshingly brutal. Nowhere is that identity more fully realized than on "Book of the Dead," a feral, unrestrained tribute to the 2013 Evil Dead remake and one of the most vicious deep cuts in their catalog.

The band doesn't simply reference the film; they inhabit it. The track channels the entire atmosphere of one of modern horror's most savage reimaginings, the claustrophobic cabin, the relentless possession, the suffocating sense that once the book is opened, fate is sealed and salvation is off the table. This song doesn't just sound like a horror tribute. It feels like the Necronomicon itself is tearing through the speakers. From the opening moments, the song locks onto the film's tone and never lets go. The lyrics trace the same grim mythology the movie carved into horror history: a cursed tome bound in flesh, a doorway to hell ripped wide open, the living reduced to puppets of something ancient and without mercy. The repeated warnings: "don't read it, don't write it, don't even speak it" echo the film's fatal inevitability. Once the book awakens, the descent is total, and no one walks out alive.

Instrumentally, Next to Eternity leans into a sound that mirrors the film's brutality with unsettling precision. Spillman's guitars grind with a serrated edge, like bone dragged across metal. At the same time, Lee pounds the kit with the same unrelenting force as the film's most notorious sequences, no hesitation, no restraint, just pure hammering violence. The pacing is frantic yet controlled, capturing the chaos of demonic possession without sacrificing musical tightness. It's the sonic equivalent of the movie's final act: rain, blood, fire, and a fight for survival that already feels lost. Vocally, Rodriguez is unhinged in the best possible sense. His delivery swings between guttural condemnation and shrieked torment, embodying both the possessed and those watching their loved ones dissolve into something monstrous. Lines referencing hatred and damnation land with genuine emotional weight, tapping into the remake's most devastating theme, the horror of seeing someone you love become a vessel for evil. The track's fixation on corrupted identity mirrors one of the film's most gut-wrenching emotional threads, made all the more affecting by Basile's and Spillman's haunting harmonies threading beneath the chaos.

The song's final stretch is its most punishing. The language crashes down in waves, being brutal, relentless, capturing the film's unflinching commitment to visceral horror. The repeated invocation of the book's power, its cruelty, its ancient and insatiable hunger, cements the track as a genuine homage rather than a passing reference. And the closing nod to the franchise's iconic chant ties the piece back to the broader legacy, bridging the remake with the original in a single, devastating phrase."Book of the Dead" succeeds because it doesn't just reference Evil Dead; it is Evil Dead rendered in musical form. Grim, violent, emotionally charged, and soaked in hopeless dread, the track captures everything that made the 2013 remake so unforgettable. Next to Eternity takes that cinematic, yet brutal, beauty and transforms it into a full-scale sonic assault as faithful as it is ferocious. This is a track that bleeds, screams, and claws its way through the listener, just like the Deadites themselves. For a band continuing to make their mark, it's a hell of a statement.

Here is the official music video for Book Of The Dead: 



Give them a follow on Instagram: Next To Eternity
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