Fagerlund's reviews

 

First on my list is this English Death Metal band. I had never heard them before and randomly stumbled on them on Youtube. I listened to the album once and then I immediately went and bought it. It has a really cool soundscape mixing Oldschool Death Metal with a lot of Doom elements. Really cool drive all the way through the album that keeps it interesting!

 

 

So if you've read my blog before you know I saw these guys back when they were unsigned, and this is their third album all ready! They've become a really solid Thrash unit that manage to deliver songs with the same energy on record as they do live, just the way good Thrash should! It's one of those were you feel the twitch in your neck as you listen...

 

 

Now, Dismember is one of my all time favourite bands... so the fact that most of it's members went ahead and made this record feels a bit odd. Because the only thing it really has in common with Dismember is the almost off drumming of Edsby. But other than that this is a really solid Rock'n'roll release that really captures the spirit of all those bands from 1978.

 

 

I'm of two minds about this album, and I guess that's fitting since it's actually two albums! Because the thing is, I'm kind of disappointed with the Ziltoid part (Dark Matters) of this album. It felt kind of uninspired and a bit too much goofing around for my taste. The other part of the album, Sky Blue, however is superb! This one is just pure excellence from start to finish and I really love it. 

 

 

Believe it or not, but this is actually the first Arch Enemy album I've bought. I've never been a big fan of this band, I always went to see them when they played on a festival I was at but they never really captured me. Then they got Alissa who I all ready knew from The Antagonist on, and it seems inspiration just exploded. This came out as a really solid album, and makes me really curious about the future! Especially with Jeff Loomis on board... and I wonder if we'll get some of Alissas clean vocals as well?

 

 

Entombed are finally back! This albums title really says it all. Entombed is a band that needs to be at the front, and here we are. This album has some really cool songs that are super heavy, and it just goes to show that the oldies can still deliver good stuff. It's just Entombed doing Entombed stuff, and just as normal it's simply good stuff.

 

 

Coming off two really excellent albums in The Apostasy and Evangelion and combined with the long break due to Nergals illness they obviously had some great expectations on them this time around... and I think they handled it quite well indeed! This is a very different album from previous instalments of Behemoth, but it's also very honest. This is the band saying "this is what we want to do" and I quite like it. It took me many listens before I started liking it, as after the first couple of times I was just left wondering "what was that?", but it has proved to be a grower for sure.

 

 

Excellent Black Metal from Norway! When I first heard this album I was a bit blown away by the power and intensity of it. It was just really powerful! And with time it has proved to be a really solid album. It doesn't quite keep that wow-factor alive, but it's so full of good songs that just oozes evil that it belongs on this list.

 

 

And here we have a crowd funded release from the ex drummer of Decapitated (and newly joined SepticFlesh). I discovered this guy some years back when I found his youtube channel as Decapitated were looking for a new drummer to replace Vitek (RIP). And it turns out this guy is not only a beast on the drums, he also plays guitar and bass really well! On top of this he can write really cool instrumental songs, so when he announced he would do a crowd funding to release this album I instantly backed it. And I'm not disappointed! This is a really powerful album with really cool experimental rhythms and riffs. I like it a lot!

 

 

And another glorious return! The Haunted are back with a vengeance! With Aro back on vocals and Jensen as the riff machine he is... backed by Björler and Erlandsson... this is just pure Thrash Metal genius! They had a couple of albums there where I really had given up on them, but then this happened. And this one is just rifftastic and full of energy. This is what Thrash is all about! 

 

 

When they first announced they would make a new album I wasn't really expecting anything at all. But when you look at the lineup... how could they possibly fail? So that makes this the third album on my list with one of the Erlandsson brothers behind the drums, and also both of the Björler brothers to follow up on the last entry. I guess some people had an inspiring year! And then you just add the brilliance that it Tompa Lindberg on top of that. Now, this isn't Slaughter of the Soul good, but it's good. Surprisingly good actually. Because unlike many of their older albums this one has a lot of space to grow in. They mix it up a bit here! Try out some new things... but still stay true to the At the Gates-sound we all know and love. This is how you make a comeback.

 

 

So this is basically Swedens answer to Nile. Super technical Death Metal with the really deep growling vocals to back it up. And they have the drummer to show they really mean business! You'll probably struggle a bit to keep up with this music, because it's fast and tecnical and delivered in a matter of factually way. I recommend listening to this album in good headphones, because otherwise there's a big chance you'll miss the subtle things that separates this album from the rest in the genre. Really cool stuff!

 

 

"Karg" is Swedish for "sparse" or even "desolate". And that's such a perfect name for this album. The third one in this set up from the band that has sprung up from the old Mithotyn guys. This is Death Metal with a touch of Folk elements (not as much as in Mithotyn but they're still definitely there in the melodies), and on this album in particular it brings you to a really simplistic and... sparse... desolate... soundscape. It's cold out there and this album delivers that feeling in a excellent way. I don't like it as much as their first album (F'imbulvintr) but it's still excellent.

 

 

Ah the Death Metal Machine from Poland! I don't think Peter and the guys will ever stop delivering great Death Metal, and this is just another one in the line! Tibi Et Igni takes the best parts from the two previous albums and combines them into one... and thus manages to keep it fresh while still having that typical Vader sound intact. This might in fact be my favourite Vader album over all! But it'll need some more time to decide that...

 

 

So I had never heard of these guys and found them randomly on "Related videos" on Youtube. And I'm glad I did! This is some technical Death Metal who focus really hard on the melody while still keeping that great sound wall up blasting your ears. And it's that combination that I really like about this band, because despite being heavy as a brick dropped on your toe it's still that melodic atmosphere that captures me. It's one of those bands where I can just close my eyes and listen for a while. Really great album!

 

 

And here's the latest release on this list! A bit late to the party (released on Dec 25), but damn. So Lord K decided he didn't want to release this one the normal way, and he hasn't sent it out to any media for reviews, not any commercial except from the bands homepage/facebook page. Just a crowd funded project, released only to the people who order it directly from the band. Now Lord K has worked on this one for the last two years, and it's really a beast of an album. I obviously haven't really had the time to properly sink in, and it really needs that because it's very complex. But I still feel it belongs on this list. With the new awesome addition of vocalist Ellinor Asp coupled with the deep growls straight from Hell delivered by Jörgen Sandstöm and backed up by the drumming of Dirk Verbeuren... all tied together by some really cool riffs by Lord K himself, as well as some electronic additions. And then the guest list! Some of the best growlers around are doing appearances on this album with Erik Rundqvist (Vomitory) and Ross Dolan (Immolation) as well as the crazy falsetto from Lawrence Mackrory (F.K.Ü. and Darkane)! And to top it all of a great guitar solo from Mike Wead! This album is really difficult to place, because it has so many facettes, it goes from straight Death Metal to Industrial, then some Drum and Bass... to go to Heavy Metal (Ellinor Asp has an awesome voice for this style of singing!) and then back to the blast beats. But somehow it all fits so well together, which just goes to show that Lord K's hard work really paid off I guess! 

So I really recommend heading over to http://www.theprojecthate.net/ and buying this record!

 

 

The finest Death Metal from Greece released a real monster this time around! They basically ride on the wave that Behemoth started a couple of years ago with really fast blasts and a thunderous guitars, and they make it masterfully! As Behemoth goes off to explore different parts of the genre SepticFlesh goes on to perfect this style instead. As a nice bonus you got a CD with only orchestrations with the limited edition, which is a really nice break after listening to the full album. It's another one of those bands that manage to sound very majestic and atmospheric despite playing super fast. It's quite a feat indeed!

 

 

Now, the genre that's usually closest to my heart is the Oldschool Swedish Death Metal. So the fact that one of those bands places this high should come as no surprise! Because Crucifyre is a rather new band, but their sound is really old. But the thing is, they do it really well. They manage to write songs that stay interesting from start to finish, they have a great pacing all through the album. This is such a big improvement over their last album it's quite amazing. Despite the raw Oldschool "don't give a fuck"-attitude this is a very subtle album. Not subtle in the normal meaning of the word I suppose, because make no mistake this album delivers like a punch in your face. But it still has those elements in there that keeps it interesting. So while not really doing anything new, they just do something old that works really, really well!

 

 

That this band places this high is actually a bit surprising to me, because I've never been a huge fan of Black Metal. Don't get me wrong, I like Black Metal and I listen to a lot of Black Metal. But it's never really on top of my list. But here came Skogen and blew me away. I had seen them live a couple of times, and they really managed to grab me with their intricate songs and melancholic melodies. So last time I saw them I had to buy their new album to see if they could deliver the same kind of atmosphere on CD. And they sure can. This is an excellent exercise in melancholy. If you close your eyes you can almost feel the wind touching the empty forest around you as you listen to this album, it's really powerful. It's also interesting that this time around they've chosen to mix the lyrics up with both Swedish and English despite following the same theme. In the end it doesn't matter much, because they still manage to catch that same atmosphere no matter which language they sing in. 

 

 

And finally the number one. I actually knew from the first time I heard this album that this would be my favourite album of this year. I just instantly connected to it like that. While the previous album was pretty much standard Oldschool Death Metal this is something else. It still has the typical Morbus Chron sound... you still hear the influences from Morbid Angel and Entombed... but still it's something else. Something fresh. Someone described them as "Death Metal as if it was invented in the 70's", and that's kind of fitting I suppose! This album is something like a dream, or nightmare rather. The lyrics are tied around some psychedelic experiences, or nightmares if you will. They tell a story of the unknown and it's all kind of eerie... which fits the music perfectly. They have a really special sound that almost sounds off beat, but yet it's so obvious it sounds like it's supposed to at all times. This makes the whole thing a bit unexpected, and very interesting to me. This is one of those bands where no member really stands out, but together they create something awesome, something brilliant. 

I really like when an album has this kind of theme, so you know from which album a song is from when you hear it. In this case... I can't really name a single song from this album, because every time I listen to it I have to listen to the full album. Otherwise it feels like I got interrupted. It just ties everything together so very nicely.

 

 

So there you have it. I've obviously missed a lot of releases this year as I always do, but from the ones I have, these are my favourites. Hopefully you find something you've missed here!