|
: Bloodbath The Fathomless Mastery album review |
|
|
|
Written by www
|
|
Monday, 03 November 2008 |
|
heres a reveiw from metalkult!
It’s rare to find a band that knows exactly where it’s going and how it’s gonna get there. Even rarer is to find that band among the death metal community. Sweden’s all-star death metal group Bloodbath are that rare kind of band.
Formed to play music in the vein of their favorite old-school Swedish death metal bands like Entombed, Dismember and Grave, Bloodbath take everything that’s great from the past and breathe new life into it. Their latest, the vicious The Fathomless Mastery (Peaceville), just may be the group’s best release to date.
Founded in 1998 by Katatonia’s Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström and Jonas Renkse on guitar and bass (respectively), multi-instrumentalist and acclaimed producer Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity) on drums, and Opeth’s main man Mikael Åkerfeldt on vocals, Bloodbath gave the metal world its first taste of its death metal goodness two years later with the monster three-song EP, Breeding Death. Since then, Bloodbath have released two equally brutal full-lengths— Resurrection Through Carnage and Nightmares Made Flesh—as well as a second EP and one live album.
Bloodbath’s second album, Nightmares Made Flesh, saw several lineup changes. Hypocrisy/Pain vocalist Peter Tägtgren filled the spot left by Åkerfeldt’s departure, Swanö switched to guitar and Witchery/Nifelheim drummer Martin “Axe” Axenrot (who also plays in Opeth) stepped in on skins. This wouldn’t be the last of Bloodbath’s personnel changes.
When time came to record the material that would become The Fathomless Mastery, Tägtgren left the band to focus on his other projects and, to my surprise, Swanö got kicked out reportedly because he was making the band too melodic. Mikael Åkerfeldt also made his triumphant return and the young Per “Sodomizer” Eriksson filled the guitar spot.
The result of this revamped lineup? Eleven head-crushing tracks that will surely rip you a new one. You need only hear the first few blasting bars of the opening track, “At the Behest of Their Dead,” and you know you’re in for a treat. Actually, the whole album can be summed up in this track: fast riffs, head-banging tempos and Axenrot’s impressive percussion.
Things get interesting on “Process of Disillumination,” “Earthrot,” and “Hades Rising.” Despite supposedly kicking out Swanö to preserve melodic purity, all of a sudden, a harpsichord appears in “Process.” If that’s not all, a stretched out guitar melody takes up a good portion of the second half of “Hades Rising,” and one whole section of “Earthrot” sounds like it should belong in a Katatonia album. While these parts are subtle and fit in surprisingly well with everything that’s going on, they will definitely throw you off guard the first time you hear them.
I’d say the best part by far about Fathomless is Axe’s drumming. I first heard his playing on Witchery’s Symphonies For the Devil and I thought it was just okay. It seems that after joining Opeth he really stepped up his game, and it definitely shows on this record. His dynamic playing, tasteful fills, and spot-on rhythms really propel this band to a new level. Åkerfeldt’s vocals are as evil and thick as ever, and Sodomizer’s riffs really bring something fresh to the music.
You can’t go wrong with Bloodbath: you know what to expect and they know how to deliver the goods. It’s amazing how most death metal bands spend their entire careers looking for that right sound and Bloodbath manage to haul ass straight from the get-go.
Simply put: Other bands play – Bloodbath SLAYS! —Henry Yuan |
Gutter's News