Review Summary: what the hell is a wombbath?
To say the early 90's death metal scene had a lot of bands might just be the understatement of the century. Many of them were pretty popular and in the recent resurgence of the old school are getting plenty of well deserved recognition. On the other hand, just as many if not more were met with very little success and usually floundered and died after one or two records (and in many cases only a few EP's). Wombbath fall under the second category, but unlike many of the bands that died out because they weren't that good, Wombbath must have slipped under the radar for something else altogether (I've read that the band had label troubles after their first LP which resulted in an embarrassingly bad EP and their eventual demise but I do not know how much truth there is in this).
Internal Caustic Torments, the only full length the band managed to release before their demise, is by far their best output and one of the better records to come out of the explosive Swedish scene of the early 90's.
While bands like Dismember and Entombed were reveling in the buzzsaw, punk influenced standard Swedish sound many associate so closely with the region today, Wombbath decided to form their sound on what is essentially the other end of the spectrum. Try to imagine if Autopsy had a pretty drunken one night stand in Stockholm with a couple of guys from Dismember and you get a pretty good picture of where Wombbath is coming from. They mostly swing between the realm of mid-tempo d-beats and slower doomy sections (this is in no way death/doom so don't flip your ***) with the occasional faster paced segments (see
Conceal Interior Torments). The riffs are a constant barrage of murky, sludgy filth and are always ***ing stellar which is where Wombbath truly shine.
There is the occasional hint at a little bit of song experimentation here and there (
Abandon is actually a pretty strange track that reminds me a bit of Gorement) and a few little keyboard sections are thrown in for a bit of cool atmosphere but other than that the approach is fairly standard although certainly not what comes right to mind when you think of Swedish death metal. The thick and grimy production coupled with the deep barking growls are just icing on the cake for the constant assault of riff after sick riff. All in all, if you like riffs, and doom, and d-beats, and thick, resounding production, and more riffs, this record is right up your alley.
Internal Caustic Torments is certainly an overlooked gem from the glory days of Sweden's finest.
