UMUR "Ravenous Murderous" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Murder Squad. The album was released through Threeman Recordings in 2003. Murder Squad was formed in 1993 by guitarist Uffe Cederlund (Entombed), drummer Peter Stjärnvind (Entombed), vocalist Matti Kärki (Dismember) and bassist Richard Cabeza (Dismember) initially as an Autopsy cover band but later the band started writing their own material. They released two full-length studio albums between 2001 and 2003.

The music on the album more or less continues down the same road as the music on the debut full-length studio album "Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged (2001)". That means old school death metal heavily influenced by Autopsy but not without heavy nods toward old school Swedish death metal. It´s filthy, buzzing and brutal. Song titles like "Spunksluts", "Army of Maggots", and "Born in Sewage, Bred in Bile" pretty much tell the story of the lyrical content if the cover artwork didn´t give it away immediately. The tracks are well played and relatively well written and the sound production is raw yet slightly better sounding than the sound production on the debut album. Autopsy frontman/drummer Chris Reifert guests on a couple of tracks delivering both vocals and laying down drum tracks. It´s not that Matti Kärki is a bad vocalist, but it´s when Reifert picks up the microphone, that my interest in listening to the music is really ignited. He is such a filthy sounding, rotten growler, which of course is meant as a praise in this case.

"Ravenous Murderous" is overall an enjoyable old school death metal release. It´s not spectacular or anything in that league but it´s solid and enjoyable while it plays. The highlights are few though and when the standout moments are those delivered by a guest vocalist I guess it says something about the project. It was fun while it lasted, but I´m pretty sure we won´t hear much from these guys again in the future. A 3 star (60%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Murder Squad. The album was released through Pavement Music in 2001. Murder Squad was formed in 1993 by guitarist Uffe Cederlund (Entombed), drummer Peter Stjärnvind (Entombed), vocalist Matti Kärki (Dismember) and bassist Richard Cabeza (Dismember) initially as an Autopsy cover band but later the band started writing their own material. They released two full-length studio albums between 2001 and 2003.

The music on "Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged" is old school death metal influenced by Autopsy but also by the late eighties/early nineties Swedish death metal scene. So expect the filth and grit of the old school American death metal scene combined with the buzzing old school Swedish death metal sound. Taking into account that Murder Squad features members (and former members) of Entombed and Dismember, it´s mostly the latter act that I´m reminded of. The sound production is typical old school Swedish influenced. It´s no surprise that the musicianship is on a good level, but while the songwriting is solid, there are not many standout moments on the 12 track, 33:44 minutes long album. This is pretty much standard old school death metal that´s enjoyable while it plays, but just as soon forgotten when it ends. Song titles like "Slowly Burnt to Death", "Bloodfreak" and "Sacrificial Strangulation, Beating and Rape" also tell you the story of the pretty generic lyrics and imagery of the band. It´s not as such a negative, just an example of the relatively generic nature of "Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged".

When that is said I still find "Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged" to be an enjoyable old school death metal release and I´m sure most fans of the genre will enjoy it too. Just don´t expect it to stand out much from the vast amount of releases in the genre. A 3 star (60%) rating is deserved.