UMUR "Temple of Phobos" is the 4th full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Vanhelgd (the Swedish word for "desecrated"). The album was released through Pulverised Records in July 2016. It´s the successor to "Relics of Sulphur Salvation" from 2014 and features the exact same linep who recorded the predecessor.

Stylistically there have been some changes though, as Vanhelgd spice up their old school Swedish death metal sound with blackened tendencies and also quite a few ultra heavy doom metal parts. The vocals are a blackened aggressive growling vocal type. The material on "Temple of Phobos" is relatively eclectic and it´s not an album with a clearly defined sound or style. It opens with some pretty harsh and brutal tracks (early death metal Darkthrone comes to mind a couple of times), but then veers off into more melodic and epic sounding territories. Initially I found the diversity between tracks to be an asset, but after giving the album more spins, I´m not so sure anymore. The impression of the album does end up being an impression of an album which is stylistically incoherrent. It´s not a major issue, but the listener should be prepared for it.

The quality of the material on the 7 track, 44:08 minutes long album is generally high though, no matter which style the band embrace. The lyrics alternate between English and Swedish language lyrics. Lyrics which are bleak and dark, and don´t exactly paint the world in bright colours. The musicianship is strong on all posts, and "Temple of Phobos" also features a powerful, detailed and raw sounding production, which is another contributing factor to the high quality of the release. Some parts of the album are quite brilliant, but the stylistic inconsistency of the material does drag my rating down slightly. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still well deserved though.

UMUR "Relics of Sulphur Salvation" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Vanhelgd (the Swedish word for "desecrated"). The album was released through Pulverised Records/20 Buck Spin in May 2014. Vanhelgd was formed in 2007 with the intent to play no frills old school Swedish death metal...

...and that´s exactly what they do on "Relics of Sulphur Salvation". This is through and through old school Swedish death metal. It´s brutal, relatively catchy, and features the signature buzzing guitar tone, that defines the "Swedish" sound. The production values are a bit more up to date, than most other contemporary artists playing this style, but it´s not a clean sound production by any means. In fact it´s a very harsh attack on the ears, which suits the equally raw music well.

Most lyrics are in English, but the band include a couple of Swedish language tracks too, and to my ears that´s greatly charming. The material are generally well written and quite catchy while it plays, but it´s not particularly memorable after the album is over, which ends up being a slight issue. The passionate and skilled performance of the material pulls my impression in a positive direction though and a 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.