DERANGED "Cut, Carve, Rip, Serve"

Swedish death metal has a lot of different bands in differents genres, and this is one of the more extreme bands among the more famous ones. Deranged has a very specific sound, the drums often have that weird marching pace at least on the their last three records, and they regularly use pinch harmonics in their songs to spice things up. The riffs are always crazy, wild and full of different rhythm patterns.The production serves its purpose, it´s well executed without a lot of flaws like strange snare drum sound or so.  I think you either love their brand of brutal death metal with lyrics about very violent stuff, or you hate it. In the long run the music can sound a bit generic, but for me it´s some kind of love/hate relationship. It sticks into my brain like glue, a rotten twisted and great glue actually. The riffs never seem to sound generic to me, just mezmerising and very headbangable. The vocalist Martin Schonherr is doin´t his grunts really well. Not the best I´ve heard, but he does the job with conviction and charisma. Death metal is served. Slay and grind as song number four says.

7,5/10

DEEDS OF FLESH "Trading Pieces"

When I first heard Deeds Of Flesh in 1999, they just blew me away. When I could, I directly ordered a shirt of the band and listened to all their records they released year by year. I love Mike Hamilton´s drumming, with his tricky rhythm patterns and Erik´s growling voice and frenetic riffing, combined with Jacoby Kingston´s crazy screams. The riffs are pretty straightforward on this full length debut, but still technical and easy to recoginze as Deeds Of Flesh. It´s not hard to understand that these fellas are known as the gods of the so cal style of brutal death metal. They were really early to play this kind of death metal and they have had followers to this date trying to bringing forth the devastation and the feeling of getting hit by a train at high speed. Although this record is released in 1996 it still sounds fresh and full of hell so to speak. All the trademarks of their sound were already there, even if they have developed their sound on later records. This is among the absolute masterpieces in this genre. Not many bands signed to either Comatose, Sevared or other brutal death metal labels have come up with something equally as brutal, well performed and incredibly catchy at the same time. This is a classic death metal record. Any flaws on this record? I think it´s hard to really pinpoint anything bad on this one. Maybe some of the songs sound a bit similar. But that is a minor flaw since they all kick major ass.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Deeds-of-Flesh/216461978367777

9,5/10

FACE OF OBLIVION "The Embers of Man"

James Lee, does that name tell you anything? He´s been the main vocalist of the masters of controlled chaos for 9 years.  His voice is very easy to recognize, since his "highs" are very sharp and distinct. Totally outstanding and wild vocal style I would say. Anyway, here he is with his new band since 2008. I guess musical and personal differences made him stop screaming in Origin, because this band is very similar to Origin in every sense of the word. Ultra technical, fast and with a lot of typical Origin-like riffing. I was surprised and very impressed when Origin´s debut album hit the scene in 2000. It was so intense, extremely technical, so brutal and so very in your face. Yes, I am talking about Origin again, because what I wanna say is that this band fulfills its function when it comes to mega super brutal death metal with one million riffs, but and there´s a big BUT. Origin has already released several albums in the same vein, and if you want a copy (A very good copy though) you can buy this too. If you can´t enough of James´ voice and "Origin number two", I think you will worship this. Overall I have mixed feelings about this record. Totally crushing, but it left me with feelings of wanting something more unique.

6,5/10

DEHUMANIZED "Controlled Elite"

Some bands release new records every year if it´s possible. The lust for writing music just never ends. Some bands releases records less regularly, but if they are among the "classic" bands, there will always be an audience for their records, even if it takes 14 years to release full lenght number two. New Yorker´s Dehumanized give us their new slab of death metal right were the old one left off. You get the growling voice, teamed up with the higher screams, the extremely heavy breakdowns. A mix of both streetwise lyrics this time and the more usual death metal expression in the lyrics, and of course the parts I can´t help but just worship. A band that knows how to grind along with a nice tremolo picked passage and does it good is always better than a band who relies on just heavy pounding all the way, with a few exceptions like Jungle Rot. You can of course hear similarities with bands like Internal Bleeding and Suffocation, a great mix of groove and madness. This record doesn´t sound tired and boring, but very fresh and intense. Traces of boredom might be the case with some bands releasing stuff with a timegap of one and a half decade. It´s really tight, heavy and well executed death metal the New York way with lots of great riffs. The one and only flaw is the second riff in "Soiled" which sounds too melodic and dull for this powerhouse. Yes, one riff is the only thing I complain about! The production is a bit clearer than their debut´s sound, but still chunky as hell. Welcome back among the elite guys!
https://www.facebook.com/DEHUMANIZED.NY

9,5/10

THIRST FOR REVENGE "Annihilation of Races"

Another one-man band (formerly known as Cerebral Torture) trying to destroy everything in its path. Along with one man killingmachines like Bloodsoaked and Putrid Pile this spanish guy tries his best to sound like a band. He manages quite well, despite the drum machine. The drum machine sounds well programmed, and is sometimes hard to recognize as a "machine". The music we get is brutal and fast death metal with a lot of twists and turns, though it´s quite easily digested death metal, catchy most of the time. You get some of the boring pig squeals, but he mostly delivers a powerful death metal voice which is pretty clear actually. It´s still death metal of course, so the voice is vicious and angry. Thirst for Revenge has similiraties with a lot of death metal bands in the same league but it´s not like "This band sounds exactly like Gorgasm, Severed Savior or Deeds of Flesh" The guy has taken influences from different brutal bands and made a record that is very well done. If I compare the aforementioned Putrid Pile and Bloodsoaked this is a bit more technical most of the time. Productionwise we get chunky guitars and not many flaws along the way.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thirst-of-Revenge/249115803616

7,5/10

KNUCKLEDUST "Bluffs, Lies & Alibis"

Knuckledust is one of the best and most dominating forces among the so called beatdown hardcore bands. Since I first heard them in 2003 I´ve liked them, they combine a brutal force with headbangable riffs and the very good vocalist Pelbu who screams and shouts without mercy. His voice is "sticky and harsh" This time around we got more of the same stuff, yet it is still as catchy as ever. Like a lethal combination of the New York hardcore scene and the UK style. You get full punch songs with sing a long choirs and the streetwise lyrics. On this record they have composed one of their most radio friendly songs ever, the titletrack. Maybe they want some great success in their homecountry. Otherwise it´s meat, and chainsaws all the way.  No comprimises. They give us what we want. High quality hardcore, with lyrics about things that happen in dark alleys at night.
https://www.facebook.com/knuckledustofficial

8,5/10

TORMENTED "Graveyard Lust"

Pretty cool cover and pretty good music. Swedish death metal has a very specific sound as you probably know. It started over 2 decades ago in a little studio in a suburb to Stockholm. Almost every more or less famous swedish death metal band has recorded their albums there. Tormented is very inspired by that sound, mixed with a little more up to date sound. Like a mix between old and newer era swedish death metal with a bit punky attitude here and there. Since there has been millions of records sounding like that, you gotta come up with some really good to make people pay attention today. If you have listened anything to Entombed (era early 2000) lately you know approximately how this is goin´to sound. A bit more polished sound than 1990, but still raw and with that harsh voice, it´s not death metal growls and it´s not thrash metal shouts/singing but something in between. Pretty near the voice L-G Petrov in Entombed uses today. The music itself is semi catchy if I use a lousy word and has a couple of good songs. But it´s nothing that I will remember for very long. Good but nothing earth shattering. Great looking logo though. Classy.

6/10