Mr. Death, Detached from Life
Featuring members of Tiamat, Expulsion and Treblinka, Mr. Death hail from the cold landscapes of the Scandinavian North — home to the founding fathers of Swedish death metal. Featuring similar buzzsaw guitars originated by the likes of Entombed and Dismember, these guys build on that base with bruising rhythms and destructive hooks.
Uptempo blasting will keep the blood flowing along with guttural growls and screams as the band shift from galloping riffs to crushing mosh and back again with great fluidity. Detached from Life may not be pushing the boundaries of the genre, but it’s also not simply aping a sound from the past. These dudes know how to bring the death and bring it with ferocity.
Suffer
“Suffer” opens up the album with reverb that seems to pay homage to Entombed before descending into a churning mass of garbage disposal grinding guitars and massive drums. This is a beastly track and will definitely have you hyped for the rest of the album. The riffing is catchy and familiar, yet still has enough modern originality to keep it from mimicking past bands. The tone to these guitars is thick like coagulating cranial fluid.
Fin
This next track keeps the momentum galloping along at a decent clip with slick riffing and a catchy vocal pattern. This is a hold on to the edge of your seat track that pummels and crushes through and through. The thick bass work just before and after the three minute mark is a nice touch and offers a bit of a respite before the next track kicks in.
A Dying God
“A Dying God” erupts out of the gate with beefy riffs and gnarly guttural vocals. This is a thick track with a whole bunch of buzz thrown into the guitars for extra measure. Straight forward death metal is all that’s in store for you with this song. Enjoy.
Evil Undisputed
Holy crap this one is dense with massive drums, layered buzzing guitars and an unrelenting vocal attack that seems to take on a life of its own. This song is full on crushing riffage from the start and never lets up with the exception of a subtle slow down around the 1:10 mark that’s got some nice riffing and vocal cadence.
Muse of Chaos
“Muse of Chaos” delivers more unrelenting and bone crushing death metal with an uptempo rhythm and thick guitars. There are some nicely layered vocals added to the mix that helps keep the album from getting too monotonous in it’s old school aesthetic. A few tempo shifts also help in this area.
Combined Anatomy
This is one of the better songs on the album, getting off to a raucous start with a big scream and massive, skull splintering riffs. “Combined Anatomy” is a dark, dense track that’s more inline with what I would like to personally hear more of from these guys. Great song!
Misery’s Womb
A more chaotic and energetic start to “Misery’s Womb” gets this song off to a great clip before settling into a mid-tempo crushing pace. I love the big series of screams and riffs around the one minute mark — evil as all get out! Man, this song is bad ass.
Denied the Will to Live
I like how this next one quickly builds up to a bludgeoning pace after a brief series of screams, wails and riffs. Once we get into that spine snapping groove, there’s no looking back as Mr. Death deliver the goods with gnarly guitars and thundering rhythms.
Death vs. The Living Dead
One hell of memorable riff gets this next one off to a great start as the drums and vocals quickly arrive on the scene. There’s a catchy groove to this song that will have you head banging along with the rest of the undead. More evil vocals accompany the groove nicely.
The Storm
Drums and sick bass work open up “The Storm” as layered screams erupt like thunder. Manic drum work are one of the highlights throughout this song as the rest of the guys in the band do their best to keep pace. The slow down just after the one minute mark is a nice touch with layered vocals before ramping it up into ludicrous speed once again to finish out the song.
Black Blood
“Black Blood” wraps up this album chock full of no-frills, gut shot of Swedish death metal rather nicely. It contains some memorable guitar work and a ferocity that has been found throughout the album. It’s not necessarily the strongest song on the album, but ends it with a well balanced set of everything the band has to offer with their brand of old school destruction.
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Additional Notes:
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