“Let’s talk about blood, baby. Hemoglobin and me. Let’s talk about all the blood things and the bad things that may bleed. Death metal and that hideous ichor that courses through us all are as synonymous as editors and intimidation… Swedish supergroup extraordinaire Bloodbath have made a career out of celebrating the genre’s twisted tenets and once pulsed at the very center of the classic scene.” Your bath is ready.
“Having just covered the latest iteration of classic Gothenburg melodeath with The Halo Effect, it only made sense to tackle the one millionth take on buzzy, fuzzy Entombedcore, this time by way of Singapore’s Doldrey. This unsung act dropped an EP in 2019 and 2022 sees the full-length debut hit the mean streets. Billing themselves as “Deathpunk,” their style is not far removed from crusty acts like Mammoth Grinder, but more firmly tethered to the early days of the Stockholm sound. This means the HM-2s are set to ‘Brutal Stun’ and the d-beats are available for bulk purchase.” Noisy punks, noisy punks…
“Swedeath is one of the most stylistically stagnant and overfull genre sumps in metal, with countless bands trying to distinguish themselves by playing olde Entombed or Dismember riffs faster or meaner than their HM-2 wielding brethren. It’s hard to reach for the stars when your feet are so firmly planted in genre foundations, but every year a cadre of new acts test their might. Sweden’s own Katokomba are one of the latest to throw their hat into the everflowing stream that runs alongside the left hand path.” Kombaya.
“If you’re a fan of Swedish death metal, or death metal in general, you probably know who Rogga Johannsson is. The omnipresent Swede is in a host of bands, and his output frequency is beyond belief. Paganizer happens to be one Rogga’s longest running projects and, unsurprisingly, pays homage to just about everything that’s awesome about Swedish death metal. Previous album The Tower of the Morbid saw the band combining the buzzsaw sound of Dismember with a touch of melodic death metal a la Amon Amarth, and Beyond the Macabre finds the band dialing the latter up considerably.” Rogga party.
“An OG band from the golden era of Swedish death metal, Entrails mastermind Jimmy Lundqvist didn’t manage to release an album until 2010’s impressive Tales from the Morgue debut. Along with powerhouse follow-ups Tomb Awaits (2011) and Raging Death (2013), Entrails elevated themselves to the upper echelon of the throwback Swedeath scene. The last several albums have got the job done solidly, however, the band has been coasting in a comfort zone and struggled to reach the heights of their earlier trio of prime platters. A line-up shake-up occurred in 2019 and now the band returns with their anticipated seventh LP, entitled An Eternal Time of Decay.” Guts check.
“Everybody misses Bolt Thrower. Ask any death metal fan what band they’d want to resurrect for one last platter of greatness, and I bet the British bruisers would be near the top of the list, alongside Death itself. There’s just something about Bolt Thrower’s trance-inducing grooves that speaks to the violent beast hidden within each and every one of us, and the band name’s is still sprayed across death metal reviews like so much machine-gun fire whenever a burly tremolo rears its head—and this is nearly two decades after their last album saw the light of day. No one has been able to completely fill the void left in Bolt Thrower’s absence.” Tanks for the memories.
“Swedeath. I keep ending up with Swedeath. There are worse problems to have to be sure, but there is ultimately a limit to how much of that very specific sound I need in my life in any given year not falling between 1990 and 1995. I reviewed Sweden’s Demonical way back in 2011 on their Death Infernal outing, finding it a mostly enjoyable blend of Entombed and Amon Amarth influences performed by members of Grave, Centinex, and Julie Laughs Nomore. I didn’t review their last few releases, but we gave them solid marks for covering the very same ground as they did back in 2011. Now we come to 7th album Mass Destroyer and not a lot has changed.” Demons in the details.
“New Jersey is known for many things, few of them good. What doesn’t come to mind when one thinks of the “Garden State” is good olde fashioned Swedeath. The sketchy ne’er-do-wells in Sentient Horror are doing their very best to change that, and third album Rites of Gore is a rowdy celebration of all things Entombed-core. Along with their buzzy HM-2 fetishism, the band integrates plenty of nods to the old-school death metal sound practiced by the likes of Cannibal Corpse as well as some truly beef-brained, meatheaded grooves that would make Jungle Rot proud.” Jersey reeks of death (and landfills).
“The second I saw Deathcult’s Of Soil Unearthed in the promo sump, I knew I had to have it. Not because I’d heard their first album, 2010’s Beast of Faith, but because that name is death metal distilled; the kind of brutish, on-the-nose moniker that conjures pleasant thoughts of Guyana in 1978. The kind of name which whispers sweet nothings to the reptilian part of my brain that produces monosyllabic grunts whenever I hear a guttural vocal, a crunchy riff, or a vile lyric or two.” Well trod earth, unearthed.
“If Australia is trying to kill you, then Descent is the club with which it bludgeons its victims. The Brisbane five-piece burst onto the scene in 2018 with Towers of Grandiosity, which worshipped at the altar of the most primitive old-school death metal. But Towers rested too heavily on its Neanderthal influences, failing to make a mark amidst stiff competition from down-under brethren like Faceless Burial, The Plague, and Earth Rot. Descent’s latest attack, Order of Chaos aims to outshine the OSDM riffraff by incorporating weapons from neighboring genres into the band’s arsenal, in defiant response to our review (I assume).” Murder Land.
