Review Summary: This EP leaves the listener hungry for more, much more.
Bloodbath emerged to the metal scene somewhere between 1999 and 2000 and they play brutal death metal. But this is not your regular death metal band, this happens to be a death metal super group from Sweden. Famous extreme metal people from various bands gathered to create a band that would deliver old-school death metal but with some modern techniques mixed in. The result is a brutal, hammer crushing death metal concoction which is dynamic, dark, haunting and of course brutal. The band has yet released a three track EP and two full-length albums, and they are planning to produce a mini CD with a new line-up. There were at the beginning a four man crew which was lead by
Opeth’s singer/guitarist
Mikael Akerfeldt. But with time he left the band to concentrate on
Opeth and he was replaced by the metal mastermind
Peter Tagtgren from
Hypocrisy, and
Dan Swano became the new second guitarist.
Bloodbath has the rights to be called a metal super group, and that’s because the band have and had at least three members that has been charge of their own one-man projects.
Tagtgren is in command of his band called
Pain, a techno/industrial metal band.
Dan Swano has also been working with side-projects where he was in charge. And at last we have
Blackheim who had an atmospheric black metal project called
Diabolical Masquerade. The rest of the crew has not been one-man-armies but they have been playing in other well-known metal bands, such as
Katatonia and
Opeth for example.
The original idea was to collect some of Sweden’s best musicians from the extreme metal field and then they would record an EP. But things were changed and eventually the band began to grow until full-length albums started to be released. This was the EP that started it all, the
Breeding Death EP which was released in 2000. With only three tracks this EP was equally as huge as a full-length album.
Breeding Death,
Ominous Bloodvomit and
Furnace Funeral are all great tracks with great dynamics and atmospheres. You might think that these tracks would sound similar to each other but they don’t. You will experience a varied guitar performance with creepy tremolo riffs, head banging riffs, catchy ‘’death riffs’’ and more. There is one crushing rhythm guitar which is followed by a standout lead guitar that creates interesting haunting melodies. Even the bass has a pretty clear and heavy tune that really adds with a solid backup sound to the guitars. The drum performance is not one of those repetitive ones, here we have some classic mid-paced drumming and other slower heavy drum beats that creates great tempo changes. In the track
Furnace Funeral there are some melodic keyboards, good or bad, you decide, but I think it sounds great. The vocals from
Akerfeldt really stands out, his dark guttural growls sounds perfect alongside the devastating music, he might not have the same wide vocal register as
Tagtgren but you don’t get tired of these growls. There are also some ‘’regular’’ screams from one of the other crew members that also adds a nice texture to the vocal performance.
Without a doubt one of the best death metal EP’s I have listen to. Even if there are only three tracks I still feel satisfied after I have listen through all songs. The reason why I think this EP is so good is because of the great sound production, the dynamics, and the tempo changes. Take
Funeral Furnace for example, it opens with a fast drum pattern and thick riffing. The riff lines changes to more thrash influenced shredding and the drumming slows down. More intense drums and some creepy tremolo riffs are played and after a few seconds the songs get a nice deathlike head banger groove. I would say that all tracks are highlights, the only track I don’t care for so much is
Ominous Bloodvomit, most because I think it didn’t had the right sort of riffs that I enjoy. Let’s end this; I highly recommend that you get this EP if you are into brutal death, old-school or modern.
Opeth fans could take a look at this if you love
Akerfeldt’s type of growls. If you happen to like bands like
Hypocrisy,
Obituary,
Grave or the uprising death grinders
Quest Of Aidance the I can guarantee that you will enjoy the music from
Bloodbath. I hope this has been an informative review which I hope has sparked an interest within you. Thanks.
Reviewer’s Track Rating
-- Funeral Furnace
4.5/5
-- Breeding Death
4/5
-- Ominous Bloodvomit
3/5
4/5
