Nightfly Let’s get straight to the point, The Hunt For White Christ, album number 13 from Swedish death metaller’s Unleashed is fucking awesome! These guys have rarely released a bad album in their almost 30 year career and since Sworn Allegiance back in 2004 all their albums would receive nothing less than 4 stars from me.

If you know Unleashed you’ll know what to expect here – death metal with touches of black and thrash metal thrown in and we’re still in the world of Odalheim as on the last few albums. Yes, don’t expect any surprises in musical growth but that’s fine with me when they keep releasing albums of this quality. If anything these songs are played with added fire and energy though as song after song unleash (no pun intended) great riff after great riff. This is easy to get into death metal and could be a good starting point for the uninitiated with Johnny Hedlund’s clear growl being more accessible than many singers in the genre. There’s also plenty of melody both in the riffs and guitar solos which are rarely less than incendiary. Things are never allowed to get dull as the music is constantly shifting through well thought out parts and tempo shifts and of course great musicianship – after 30 years it’s not surprising this band runs like a well-oiled machine. I won’t cite individual songs for praise as such is the quality here it’s almost impossible to pick favourites.

I’ve added some great death metal albums to my collection this year but The Hunt For White Christ is one of my most played and favourites. Long may this great death metal institution continue to release albums as good as this.