Lista de los grupos Death Metal Mass Burial (ESP) Of Carrion and Pestilence

I had to check a few things before getting on to this review. Yes, Mass Burial is a Spanish band and maybe I suck at geography but I had to take another closer look at the map of Europe to realize that Sweden was no bordering country of Spain.

So you’ve guessed it, here we are with another band that pledged allegiance to the peculiar Swedish Death Metal sound of the early 90s, namely the Sunlight Studio sound. To be perfectly fair with the band, they really captured this sound to its fullest. It does feel as if Tomas Skogsberg were behind the production console as Of Carrion and Pestilence reeks off of past behemoths like Nihilist, Carnage, Dismember and so forth. Basically take in bits of early Entombed and Afflicted, mix them with early Dismember and early Therion, add power-ups in the form of Mr Death and you have the recipe for Mass Burial. You’ll even find a few chunks of Carcass on the main riff of the track “Mass Burial”, but I guess that it’s no accident since the British band was also very influential in shaping the characteristic Swedish sound.

Obviously this is bound to appeal to all those of us that remain nostalgic of this era and to those that actually are discovering it nowadays. Still, as much as I can praise the effort to copycat with class all these legends to actually make it sound as if one of them, Mass Burial fails close at one thing: keeping the attention up. Though there are no obvious flaws, there are also no really striking elements that would spice up the play. Those early legends of Sweden had certainly managed (thanks to Skogsberg mainly) to create a sound of their own but they also add some magic in them that made records such as Left Hand Path or Dark Recollections instant classics. Use of intricate melodies, stunning breaks and insidious darkness with an almost punkish angst. And I'm afraid that even though Mass Burial captured the form, they failed at seizing the substance of it.

Still don’t get me wrong, this is certainly catchy as hell and most tracks, and especially Mass Burial and Post War Psychosis, are nice ones worth checking out but the old flame isn’t here as it was on the previous releases worshipped by the dudes of Mass Burial. On top of that, if you consider the avalanche of bands, from Scandinavia or not, that have "embraced" the Swedeath sound, it looks like it's going to be tough for the Spaniards to compete with the likes of Morbus Chron, Mr Death or Stench of Decay. Good luck with that.

Otherwise, if you’re a fanatic for everything close to this era, this is a sound buy worth the money you’ll spend on it. So in the end, I'd say this is average + and worth checking out if you need a Swedish fix.