UMUR "Descent of Yuggoth" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Megascavenger. The album was released through Selfmadegod Records in December 2012. Megascavenger is a Rogga Johansson project where he handles guitars, bass, and some vocals. The drums are handled by Brynjar Helgetun. "Descent of Yuggoth" features 9 tracks. 4 of the tracks feature guest vocal performances by prolific vocalists like Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Bloodbath, Nightingale, Demiurg...among others) and Marc Grewe (Morgoth) and 3 tracks feature guest lead guitar performances by prolific names like Eric Daniels (Asphyx, Grand Supreme Blood Court) and Patrick Mameli (Pestilence).

The music on the album is pretty standard death metal rooted in the old school Swedish death metal tradition. It´s slightly more varied than your standard release in the genre, featuring some melodic leanings, but other than that you pretty much know what to expect. The musicianship is solid, the growling vocals brutal, and the material is relatively well written. The latter could have been a bit more interesting with more memorable riffs, but overall "Descent of Yuggoth" is a pretty great release while it plays. On the other hand it´s not exactly an album which stays in your mind for very long after it has stopped playing. For that there arent´s enough catchy riffs featured on the album and the vocal parts on the album don´t feature enough hooks. It´s simply solid but seldom excellent.

On the plus side "Descent of Yuggoth" features a professional and relatively well sounding production, which suits the music well, and overall the album is a decent first effort from Megascavenger. It just suffers from the same issues as a lot of other Rogga Johansson projects do. He pushes so many releases out every year under different monickers, but while the musicianship and the productions are usually on a relatively high level, very few of them rise above standard quality when it comes to the actual songwriting, and the same issue applies to "Descent of Yuggoth". Still a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "As Dystopia Beckons" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Megascavenger. The album was released through Selfmadegod Records in March 2016. Megascavenger is a Rogga Johansson (Demiurg, Ribspreader, Paganizer, The Grotesquery...) project, who released the "Songs of Flesh (Part I)" EP in 2012, as their first release. Then followed the two full-length studio albums "Descent of Yuggoth (2012)" and "At the Plateaus of Leng (2014)", both which featured H.P. Lovecraft influenced themes and a host of guest vocalists.

"As Dystopia Beckons" also features quite a few guest vocalists. Among others Kam Lee (Massacre, The Grotesquery, Bone Gnawer), Dave Ingram (Benediction, Bolt Thrower, Down Among the Dead Men, and Hail of Bullets), and Adrie Kloosterwaard (Sinister). Stylistically the music and the concept of "As Dystopia Beckons" are a bit different from the two predecessors. The basic style is still old school Swedish death metal, but this time around with an added industrial element and a sci-fi lyrical concept. It feels much more like a cohesive album with a planned tracklist than a compilation of leftover tracks from various other projects, which was often the feeling I got while listening to "Descent of Yuggoth (2012)" and "At the Plateaus of Leng (2014)".

The material on the 9 track, 31:18 minutes long album is well written a relatively diverse within the confines of the genre. There are a couple of tracks which stand out more than the others because they venture into other musical territories. "As the Last Day Has Passed" which features Teddy Möller (Loch Vostok, The Experiment No.Q, The Hidden) on vocals is one of them. It´s a melodic tinged heavy metal/death metal track, with semi-clean vocals. "The Harrowing of Hell" is another standout track. It features clean vocals too (which according to the liner notes, and a bit surprisingly really, are delivered by Kam Lee), and is a goth rock influenced metal track. "Dead Rotting and Exposed" is the most industrial tinged track on the album (although it´s still mostly a death metal oriented track), and the closing title track is a gloomy and eerie sounding noise track. So obviously this is a relatively diverse release. As mentioned above it´s a well constructed album with a dark dystopian sci-fi atmosphere (further enhanced by programmed drums, effects, and synths).

The album features a dark, raw, and powerful sounding production, which suits the material well, and the musicianship (instrumental performances and vocals) is strong throughout. So upon conclusion "As Dystopia Beckons" is the strongest Megascavenger release yet. The concept is interesting, the material is powerful and memorable, and the performances and the sound production are strong too, so it´s a hiqh quality release through and through. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "At the Plateaus of Leng" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Megascavenger. The album was released through Chaos Records in February 2014. Megascavenger is a Rogga Johansson project where he handles guitars, bass, and some vocals. The drums are handled by Brynjar Helgetun (who also sings on one track). On "At the Plateaus of Leng" all 9 tracks feature a different vocalist, which was also, to a lesser extent, the case on the band´s debut full-length studio album "Descent of Yuggoth (2012)". Among others Dave Ingram (Benediction, Bolt Thrower, Down Among the Dead Men), Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx, Hail of Bullets), and Kam Lee (Massacre, The Grotesquery).

The dominant vocal style on the album is growling, but there are a few tracks included featuring more "regular" singing. The basis in the music is old school Swedish death metal, but "At the Plateaus of Leng" is at times also quite melodic, and generally a bit more varied than many of Rogga´s other projects. The fact that the album features so many different lead vocalists has the effect that it becomes a bit less cohesive than what is usually a good idea when you release a full-length album, but listened to one by one all tracks on the album are pretty good quality material. As it´s often the case with Rogga´s projects the material seldom reach excellence though. For that the riffs aren´t remarkable enough and some of the vocal performances not convincing enough.

"At the Plateaus of Leng" features a well sounding production, which suits the material well, and in many ways "At the Plateaus of Leng" is one of the more interesting Rogga related releases out there because of the varity of the material and the varity of the vocal performances, but the diversity is also the album´s biggest issue as the album feels more like a compilation of leftover tracks from various other projects (Rogga has collaborated with quite a few of the guest vocalists on other projects), than a planned album release. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved though.