Labels: Deathwish
Review by: Tony Era
I have two silly little rules about music. The first one is if something is Swedish then it is probably good (see too many bands to mention). The second is if an album cover has skulls on it then it is also good. This album has both. A Swedish band with great goryish artwork throughout (done by Jacob Bannon no less!). I was frothing at the mouth.
I don’t think this band know whether they are hardcore with a tint of metal or vice versa or even something else entirely. All I know is it’s a very heavy, mostly mid-paced with great thundering riffs and drums. The vocalist sounds really pissed off and screams, shouts, growls and anything else he can think of. They actually sound like “At The Gates” if you played “Slaughter of the Soul’ at 20rpm or something.
Some songs meander along but the lack of pace doesn’t take anything away from the record, its like a hugely metalled up Kyuss, repetitive and spell binding, especially on track 3 “Watching the train go by’. Also the album flows incredibly well and a lot of thought has obviously gone into the order of the songs, something so simple yet seemingly overlooked by many bands.
The piece de resistance though comes in the shape of track seven “Anxiety Report’. It is simply amazing. Like nothing else on the album this is a very long, slow song with screamed/sung vocals and a great chorus. This is the kind of song bands put at the end of an album that most people probably never get far enough to hear. This is put just after the middle of the album and its impossible to skip or fast-forward. There hasn’t been a metal song that has drawn me in so much for a long time and when I read the lyrics I realised that I connect with what he is singing one hundred percent and am truly touched, I normally only feel this with emo bands.
Its not all doom and gloom though, Nine pick up the pace a lot on a few songs and these gallop along and inject a perfect amount of speed and variation to the record. The drums also are really important here and use a lot of post-hardcore type rhythms to break it up even more.
Every time I’ve listened to this record it has got better. I don’t know when it’ll stop improving but I hope it’s soon because if it reveals any more to me I don’t think my brain will take it. Like Tool in this respect I am very impressed when bands take time to write layers into their songs and this is the key to repeated listening for years to come. I just wish I knew they were coming over with Converge a while ago, for those who did see them you should know what I’m talking about.
Overall a great record that subtly spans a few genres without becoming messy. A highly refreshing metal record and great to see it on Burning Heart too, if it’s broke fix it and they have.