Review Summary: A modern old-school brutal death-metal album, created by some of Sweden's biggest metal musicians.
Somewhere between 1999 and 2000 a collaboration was engaged by
Mikael Akerfedlt also known as a guitarist from a famous band called
Opeth, he started a the band alongside some of Sweden’s finest metal musicians. The original idea was just to play old-school brutal death-metal, most because of the fact that many of the members had their musical interests rooted in the more extremer metal genres. The main thought was to release an EP and it would be the end of the line, but the members thought otherwise and the little project grew into a much bigger project. This so-called ‘’supergroup’’ has released yet one EP (
Breeding Death) and two studio albums (
Resurrection Through Carnage and
Nightmares Made Flesh). There has been a few changes during the line-ups, members swapping instruments and the brainchild himself left the band to continue with his finer band
Opeth, but luckily there was one person who became a perfect replacement, the metal genius
Peter Tagtgren from
Hypocrisy. He replaced
Mikael Akerfeldt and was responsible for the vocals on
[i]Nightmares Made Flesh. You sometimes see other forms of supergroups emerging and sometimes you think that the line-up and the final product is or was completely crap and then you suddenly discover another supergroup that has a perfect blend of famous musicians,
Bloodbath is one of those bands that has a perfect line-up with the best of the best.
In 2004 their second full-length album was released, the accomplishment was called
Nightmares Made Flesh, an album that dug up the past from the old-school brutal death-era and played it with new influences and craftsmanship. This album delivers a deadly and heavy dose of unpleasant death-metal, all songs has great structures and musical engineering that creates a very good variety in the material. You both have fast songs like
Stillborn Saviour and
Bastard Son Of God, slow songs like
Draped In Disease and
Outnumbering The Day, some small doom-metal influences can be found in songs like
Eaten and
Blood Vortex. There are very few signs of melody here, since this is brutal death-metal melody should be out of the question but you can sense some melody in some of the songs, especially in some of the guitar solos and the lead work. Everything here has a great sound, nothing is too overwhelming, perhaps the bass might be a bit overshadowed by the thick guitars but the rest is totally flawless. Atmosphere is very present in this album, all the songs displays some kinds of unwelcome, eerie, haunting and mystical atmospheres. This factor creates life in the material, as a sign that the members really deliver precise and serious performances and not some sloppy or unenthusiastic nonsense.
Peter Tagtgren, he might not have incredible instrumental skills but he is definitely vocally talented nonetheless. He has the ability to sing almost anything, growls, screams, shrieks, chants, raspy or harsh vocals and clean vocals; these are some of his vocal register.
Peter delivers some of his best vocals in this album, from the deepest beast growls to cutting black-metal shrieks and agonizing hollering. He definitely helps to create a brutal atmosphere with his respective vocal work.
Anders Nystrom and
Dan Svanö are also of the same calibre as
Peter Tagtgren, these guitarists has also been included in lots of famous Swedish metal bands, they have even created projects where they are responsible for all the instruments and vocals. They are the two guitarists in this album and both of them makes high-quality performances, bone-crushing rhythms, cutting lead work, haunting solos and some unusual guitar breakdowns are also present here. The guitars have a massive sound which creates pure heaviness, one of the band’s triumph cards.
Jonas Renkse is the bass player on this album, this bassist has been playing in famous bands as well, not to famous but
Katatonia is one of them.
Jonas actually stands out a bit in this album, he mostly follows the heavy guitars but he also jumps forth and delivers a few short bass solos. But he remains in the rhythm section and helps to create a steady wall of sound.
Martin Axenrot, a drummer who has also performed with numerous of other bands,
Opeth,
Witchery and
Satanic Slaughter to name some of the bands. Here you will find a varied drum performance, some death-bands tend to use a rather one-dimensional and un-changing style of drumming but
Axenrot doesn’t. Ferocious blast beats and heavy double bass kicking are some of the main patterns that you will experience in this album, there are of course other style of drumming here, both fast, moderate and slow drumming. There are no signs that tell that the drumming is repetitive, every song has a different drum pattern that doesn’t mix up with other songs.
I’m pretty much surprised that I enjoyed this album as much as I did, but there was one thing that I thought didn’t suit the music so good. I can only find one bad thing in this album so I start with that, I thought that some of the guitar solos really didn’t fit some of the songs. Some guitar solos were trembling to much into
Invocator territory, and that is a band that I have some negative experiences from. The solos felt too familiar with their style of soloing, lots of wailing and extended vibrato moments did not suit the brutal and devastating music. Other than that the album really lived up to what it is described to play, definitely a heavy and very brutal death-metal album. Everything was flawless, great production, innovative guitar work, tremendous vocal work; everything had something to add to the extreme, dark and brutal atmosphere.
I can recall that I found a few songs from this album and back then I thought: ‘’
This was too brutal and extreme for my taste’’. But after six months or so the thought of getting the whole album just struck me, I got
Nightmares Made Flesh and I really enjoyed it, it didn’t felt so brutal after all when I realized that
Peter Tagtgren was the vocalist this time. But this is not an album that suits everybody, it is definitely not an album for the faint of heart, everything here shows no mercy. People who are dedicated followers of
Peter Tagtgren and his work with
Hypocrisy would probably enjoy this album because of his massive vocal performance. And judging by the gore and death based lyrics, people who like bands like
Cannibal Corpse would also enjoy this album. Old-school death-metal fans that enjoys the legends of death-metal such as
Obituary and or
Deicide could have a look at this band and this here album.
Pros
+ An incredible and massive overall sound
+ Probably one of Peter Tagtgren’s best vocal performances ever
+ Innovative and refreshing guitar work
+ Good overall variety, very few moments of repetition
+ Past and future moulds into a perfect modern old-school death-metal album
Cons
- Some guitar solos did not suit some of the songs
Recommended Tracks
-- Cancer Of The Soul
-- Draped In Disease
-- Outnumbering The Day
-- Eaten
-- Brave New Hell
This album will be given proud a 4.5/5
