Here's another crop of bands (this time with a more Scandinavian-based set):
-Carbonized: I'm not quite sure if they've been mentioned or not. They started out as one of the quirkiest bands of the entire Swedeath scene - grinding
Death Metal, but with an almost jazzy flair to the rhythms and the odd melodic quirks to the riffwriting. Oddly enough, despite having some of the most prominent members of Stockholm's
Death Metal scene - Matti Karki (
Dismember), Lars Rosenberg (
Entombed), and Christofer Johnsson (
Therion) - they never became as notorious as some of the other bands from that scene. No matter... the peak of this band's work to me is the No Canonization single (which features arguably one of Karki's most
Savage vocal deliveries ever - imagine the vocals from the
Carnage LP on general principle) and For The Security, both exbiting quirky breaks, great riffs, and an excellent bass performances that adds a lot of colour to the music.
-Sarcasm: This Swedish band specialized in a ridiculously fast and blistering take on the old melodic black/death metal sound that
Unanimated brought to the table with their first two albums (much more the latter with
Unanimated however). They never put together a full-length album, however A Touch Of
The Burning Red Sunset pulls together all three of their official demos for this release. The songs are great: fast, ripping
Death Metal with some excellent melodic riffs throughout. Be warned though, the production is generally very poor even for demo quality stuff.
-Wombbath: This band was one of the real meat-and-potatoes groups of the Swedeath scene - no frills,
Nothing flashy, just disgusting, bludgeoning riffs and a guitar tone that is just about the audial equivilant of a sewer. Imagine
Autopsy meeting
God Macabre or something, though this emphasizes the mid-paced elements of both groups more often then not. Internal Casutic Torments is a damn fine album, and the early demos aren't bad at all. Warning though, stay away from Lavatory.
-Shub Niggurath: This band is probably best known for featuring
The Chasm axe-man Julio Viterbo previously, but SN were a fairly good band in their own right, playing a brand of
Death Metal heavily derived from the style of early
Morbid Angel, with maybe a bit less thrash influence then that band had. Evilness And
Darkness Prevails is a pretty solid album overall: great, twisting riffs, powerful vocals, and spot-on drumming.
-Utumno: This band was what
God Macabre Mastermind Jonas Stalhammar was involved with after that group dissolved, and while this was also short lived, the fruits of their efforts in a small EP known as Across The Horizons is a very, very good slab of Swedish death metal. This actually takes a suprisingly more technical and elaborate take on the style, with some rather quirky riffs and strange timings with the drums here and there. The songs are pretty damn well put together, and for an EP it has one of the best productions ever from Sunlight Studios. The vocals take quite a bit for people to get used to, since they're basically a throaty shout, but otherwise this is damn fine work.
