Bloodbath, The Fathomless Mastery
It’s hard to believe that what started out 10 years ago as a side project has festered into one of the most potent death metal forces in the world. From the very beginning Bloodbath have been hell bent on bringing back the old days of death metal. Their latest effort certainly does that in spades, but also sees the band taking large steps to go beyond just thriving in years past.
Featuring the return of Michael Akerfeldt on lead vocals Bloodbath‘s latest full length The Fathomless Mastery is just that — a showcase of the immense depths of death metal mastery. Upping the ante from simply reliving the Swedish death metal that the collective grew up listening to, their latest album has a much more matured brutality chugging through its lengths. Moments of old school destruction mix with weaving leads, modern riffs and plenty of atmosphere to separate itself from the band’s discography.
What really makes The Fathomless Mastery really stand out is how cohesive and flowing the tracks are. Everything from start to finish has a purpose and work in conjunction with one another to produce an undeniable, yet simple, bludgeoning bit of death metal.
At The Behest Of Their Death
The opening track opens up immediately with crushing drum work and evil as hell guitars — with a dark Akerfeldt growl thrown in for good measure. Man, you’re certainly left with no doubt that Bloodbath mean business with their latest album. Winding riffs and unrelenting drums back up the vocal cadence to perfection. Man, the guitars on “At The Behest Of Their Death” are all over the place yet don’t meander aimlessly. This is one hell of track with plenty of atmosphere that will leave you salivating for the rest of the disc.
Process Of Disillumination
“Process Of Disillumination” starts off with pummeling drums, driving riffs and harsh growls. The pace on this one is fairly maniacal, with heavy drum work that pushes Akerfeldt’s growls forcefully down your gullet. I love the brief slowdown toward the beginning that slowly builds back into a ferocious storm of sick leads and driving rhythms. The track ends abruptly.
Slaughtering The Will To Live
I love the staggered, violent start to this next one as a big growl comes in with a quickened pace. Brutal yet with plenty of groove, “Slaughtering The Will To Live” is a massive track with lots of tempo shifts and bruising rhythms. There are a couple of sweet leads on this one that really make the track that much more impressive.
Mock The Cross
This is probably my favorite track on the album. It’s bruising yet catchy in it’s delivery. The opening guitar work also has the Cannibal Corpse-like squeal tossed into the mix. Man, Akerfeldt’s cadence throughout the album thus far has been freakin’ spot on. I highly recommend cranking this one as loud as you can stand.
Treasonous
“Treasonous” gets going with swirling riffs that envelope you in a dark shroud of evil. The vocals even make the added effort to add to the mood with a deeper, more guttural delivery. There are some nice melodies hidden within the depths of this track. The chorus on this one is sick and has plenty of groove to carry the pace along.
Iesous
This next one is a chugging monstrosity of galloping riffs and beastly rhythms. “Iesous” starts off slowly as the track builds to a manic frenzy of spastic drums and crushing riffs. It’s not the greatest track on the album, but will surely have you snapping tendons in your neck in now time flat.
Drink From The Cup Of Heresy
“Drink From The Cup Of Heresy” starts out rapidly with a frenzied pace and quicker vocal delivery, as well. This one is a violent ride into the depths of hell if ever there was one. Big, chugging riffs bludgeon from every direction as thundering rhythms accompany raw, guttural vocals lead to plenty of head banging fun. There’s also a hell of a lead about half way through that’s just sick.
Devouring The Feeble
Man, this one is a brutal track. Massively thick riffs and heavy drumming open it up like rolling thunder overhead. Akerfeldt’s delivery is much more straightforward in it’s approach — thick, guttural and dark. “Devouring the Feeble” will certainly to that to those that aren’t prepared for what’s to come when this track starts out.
Earthrot
This next one gets off to a rapid start with a squeal and settles into a pummeling pace rather quickly. A more darkened feel envelopes “Earthrot” as Bloodbath progresses through it. Layered growls create great depth in the track’s sound as bruising rhythms rapidly increase in pace and slow to a bludgeoning crawl over and over. There are some really solid atmospheric elements at play toward the latter half of the song as well.
Hades Rising
“Hades Rising” has a more of an older Bloodbath feel to it with great groove and slick guitar work. The vocal cadence and layered growls give it a well polished and evil sound. The combination of the chugging monstrosity that is the chorus with the lighter, more technical moments in the song make for a well produced dynamic sound. The end of the song has some amazing musicianship with soaring guitars and steady drum work.
Wretched Human Mirror
The final track starts off with some rapid drum work and an aggressive, quick vocal delivery from Akerfeldt. The pace lets up a bit for some nicely timed and huge guitar hits before quickly getting back into the rapid fire pummeling. A nice melancholic feel lends itself to a great atmosphere of doom, gloom and despair as the track fades slowly with a few sound bytes overlaid over the music.
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It’s becoming harder and hard to take these guys as anything but a serious death metal entity. What started out as a fun side project and blossomed — like fungus on a decomposing corpse — into a force to be reckoned with in the genre. Their sound has matured and evolved nicely without taking away from the original focus of the group. This is by far their most accomplished release. Go get it now.
Favorite Tracks:
All of them
Additional Notes:
N/A