One personal thought about the guitars, I don't think it's your pickups or your playing (I think you're playing is really good honestly) but I do think the actuall riffing (composition) and tuning play an important part in getting "that" which you seem to be missing in most of the mixes. If you notice, your song is mainly based on tremolo picking riffs while the references you posted have lots of low 5th riffs (probably droptuned), much more palm-muted. Plus those bands are most likely playing in much lower tunings than D and that plays a huge part in the heaviness of the tone, while D is more of a traditional death metal kind of tuning, like the very riffs of your song.
This said, I really like this song and really want to hear the finished album. I worked a couple hours on the guitars today, and had to do some HEAVY processing to get them anywhere near useable, for as much as I try I just can't escape the "ampsim-ness" of ampsims, but I still want to do this so I'll try to finish tomorrow if I have spare time after a session with my own band
In every possible moment you'll be promoted.
