2004-09-02
Formerly known as a retro death band, Bloodbath come into their own with their second full length release, a true classic of the death metal genre.
Changes in the line up include the replacing of Mikael, of Opeth fame, with the ever dependable and ever busy Peter Tagtrgren, here doing his deepest, most awe aspiring death growl possible, and the addition of drummer Martin Axenrot, who replaces Dan Swano, who takes on guitar duties this time.
Though their former release, Resurrection Through Carnage, was a truly powerful death slab, this, their latest, takes the band into a whole different plateau.
The band's dedication to creating "old-school" death metal, comes into life with tracks such as the blistering "Cancer Of The Soul" which opens the album, a track that truly sounds as if taken from an old Dismember album, certain aggressive melodies there, but this is no Swedish Melodic death metal album, it's raw and fast, with no Iron Maiden comparisons, mostly Dismember, Carnage, and Entombed.
Brave New Hell has some modern bits in the excellent chorus, which demonstrates Tagtgren's great sense of vocal delivery, the great guitar work by both guitarist only helps on accentuating the band's over whole capability.
Outnumbering The Day is a great tragic-brutal track, with a great guitar riff, while Eaten is pure Morbid Angel, using lyrics based on the case of the German guy that contacted a cannibal and asked him to eat him…nice stuff.
Year Of The Cadaver Race is yet another winner, great riff, great vocals,
The drumming is mostly fast tempo, very similar to the beats used in the classic death bands some 10 years ago, with the occasional blast beat.
All in all, this is a great death metal album, retro or not, it just plain good metal.
Alon Miasnikov
