Time Signature To armageddon...

Genre: old school Swedish death metal

Old school Swedish death metal is on its way back into the limelight, having been obscured in the shadow of melodeath for more than fifteen years. Mr Death (whose members have previsouly been involved in bands like Tiamat, Treblinka and Expulsion) is one of those bands who are blazing the trail of the return of the Stockholm sound.

From beginning to end, Mr Death's latest album "Descending Through Ashes", is a tour de force in dirty and raw old school Swedish death metal with primitive death metal riffage paired with lots of elements from thrash metal and crossover metal and crust punk energy. Co not expect any modern elements here - there are no deathcore breakdowns, no ultra fast blastbeats, and no black metal harmonies. However, there are a couple of more rock-inspired moments on this album, and tracks like "Come Winter" and "Descending Through Ashes" are akin to the death 'n' roll style on Entombed's "Wolverine Blues" review, while "Another State of Decay" has a couple of Motörhead-like elements in it.

True to the Stockholm sound ethos, the guitars are downtuned and very distorted, as is the bass, and the drums have an organic, live-ish sound, and the overall sound is raw, unpolished and play dirty. The crusty death grunt vocals fit the music perfectly.

If you like bands like Nihilist/Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Vomitory, Desultory and the like, Mr Death's "Descending Through Ashes" is certainly a release you ought to check out.