I had high hopes for this, the second album from Sweden’s Deathswarm. It’s on FDA records, which is almost always a good sign. !t features members of cult Swedish act Sarcasm, and the promotional materials threw out words like ‘Bolt Thrower’ and ‘Dismember’. And even after opening tracks “We Still Burn” and “Unshackle the Jackal”, I’m on board, even with the badly mixed vocals of Heval Bozarslan.

However, the next 45 minutes (the album is a way too long 50 minutes), I’m completely bored. And not because its a bad album, its not, It does everything you’d want from an old school death metal album that that tries to mix Bolt Thrower and Dismember; solid mid range buzz, trundling riffs, occasional blast beat, some melodic canters etc. It’s just utterly average.

Even the slow rumbling, moody songs like “Where Death Is Recrowned” or closer “In the Wells They Await”, never really suck me in or get my neck snapping, and I usually love that shit. The whole affair is just by the numbers, OK death metal, its got an OK production, OK riffs, OK vocals; nothing special and nothing jumps out. I mean, tracks like “Army of Shadows” pure Both Thrower-y  “Unblessed Be Catharsis”, are Ok, but are just by the numbers songs that I like, but don’t really like.

Only “The Poet and the Meat Cleaver” elicited any sort of response with a short lived opening, galloping riff I enjoyed, which isn’t great for a nearly hour long album. But if you are in need of something in the style until new Entrails album or something similar, this would be an OK stop gap.

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