UMUR "Nightmares Made Flesh" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Bloodbath. The album was released through Century Media Records in September 2004. Bloodbath is a death metal supergroup consisting of members and ex-members of some of the most prolific and influential Swedish death- and doom metal acts. "Resurrection Through Carnage (2002)" was probably written and released as a hobby project for the members, but the album proved to be highly successful and Bloodbath opted to release a 2nd album. There´s been a couple of lineup changes since the debut album though as lead vocalist Mikael Åkerfelt (Opeth) has been replaced by Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain), Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Nightingale...etc.)) has shifted from drums to guitars and bass and Martin Axenrot (Opeth) has been brought in as the band´s new drummer. The last two members of the band are still Jonas Renske and Anders Nyström from Katatonia. Both on guitars and bass.

The music on "Nightmares Made Flesh" is more or less what I would call old school Swedish death metal perfection. Not all tracks are equally memorable but even the more standard tracks are greatly enjoyable and there´s nothing below standard on the album. However it´s brilliant tracks like "Cancer of the Soul", "Brave New Hell", "Outnumbering the Day", "Eaten" and "Draped in Disease" that really place the album among the elite of Swedish old school death metal releases. I´ll even go as far as to call "Brave New Hell" one of the greatest old school Swedish death metal tracks written up until then. It´s more than obvious that we´re dealing with very seasoned musicians but certainly also skilled composers. These guys know exactly how an old school Swedish death metal track should sound like to satisfy fans of the genre. So yeah it´s not exactly original, but it doesn´t strive to be. That´s the whole point. The band members just love to play the music they played when they were younger and it´s audible.

New vocalist Peter Tägtgren does a great job replacing Mikael Åkerfelt, and personally I prefer his vocals to Åkerfelt´s. While Tägtgren´s vocals are deep growling and commanding just as Åkerfelt´s, his style is more aggressive than the style of his predecessor. His vocals are placed high in the mix, in classic old school death metal style. The rest of the band are very well playing too and while the music style features a rather limited range of elements you can use if you don´t want the usually conservative fans of old school death metal to scream "treason", Bloodbath are fully capable of changing pace, incorporating semi-melodic leads and a couple of short acoustic breaks to keep the tracks diverse and interesting. The powerful and raw sound production suits the music really well too and is another great asset on the album.

While a retro sounding death metal album naturally doesn´t present much new, "Nightmares Made Flesh" is in every other way a very successful album. IMO it´s so great that it would pretty surely make it into a top 10 old school Swedish death metal list if such a list was ever created by me. If you´re not familiar with old school Swedish death metal I can highly recommend that you start your journey here. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

bartosso The first Bloodbath album is a piece of refurbished Swedish death metal. Saying refurbished I mean classic but modified enough to blend with modern trends and draw young metalheads attention. That's exactly what you'll hear listening to RESURRECTION THROUGH CARNAGE - modern sounding, well executed and catchy Swedish death.

Now, let's get down to details. As I said, the production is very good. Everything sounds massive - groovy and thick production enhance the Bloodbath experience. Guitars sound exceptionally evil, and I mean it. Evil as hell! Deep, sharp, granular distortion with extremely long sustain - I've never heard that kind of distortion before. Next thing is growling. Or, in the case of this particular vocalist, I should say The Growling. If you think that Mike's roars sounded hellish in Opeth's albums, here it sounds like he's being possessed by Belzebub... and feeling good about it. In a word, fantastic performance.

Concerning the most important aspect, the music, I have to say it's a satisfying album. It maintains (almost) the same artistic standards throughout the recording. The death ride starts with brooding "Ways to The Grave" and ends with equally dark "Cry My Name". These two songs and "Trail of Insects" are excellent - true highlights of the record. The rest of the tracks is good, but I didn't find anything exceptional about them. Lots of groovy riffs, solid drumming and nice, ominous atmosphere.

With such great musicians participation, it just couldn't go wrong. I think that Bloodbath wanted to create a very good album and nothing more. That's exactly what they've achieved.

bartosso Oh yeah, death metal supergroup! Doesn't it sound stupid? Nevertheless, this is great release, short EP with 3 good death metal songs on board. Classic Swedish death with catchy riffs, fantastic growling and nice production.

What else could be said? Classic death metal played by the biggest names in the genre: almighty Åkerfeldt with Belzebub' infernal growl; Dan Swanö and Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström with their great feeling to good riffs and Jonas Renkse who is an absolute master at being invisible on stage... and playing bass too. So you see, this record had to be successful.

It would be 3 stars without any bit. But I give it that little + for the last track. It's really great. Really.

arcane-beautiful So...a Swedish death metal supergroup...with Mikael Adkerfeldt on vocals...wow, must buy.

I wasn't too aware of these guys I'm afaid, but when I became noticed of their existence...I was like, "Cool, shud be interesting," and I was thrilled to find this album in my local HMV.

So, is it any good.

Yes, it's not perfect, but to be honest, out of all the modern death metal tripe...this is a breath of fresh air.

Mikaels vocals are the real attraction. I always thought he has the most distinctive and amazing vocals in death metal, and he does sound like Satan at most times.

Musically, their are black metal and groove metal moments, but it's pure death metal at heart, and is a push forward in the extreme movement.

1. At The Behest Of Their Death - Amazing riffage. The pure epitome of evil. Vocals are just spewing forth bile and vomit in this song. 10/10

2. Process Of Disillumintation - Slightly More melodic. Great lyrics. 8/10

3. Slaughtering The Will To Live - Some killer grooves and kick ass riffs. 8/10

4. Mock The Cross - Classic death metal at its best. Great chorus. 10/10

5. Treasonous - The arrangement and flow of this song is just amazing. 9/10

6. Iesous - Interesing arrangement. Weirdly catchy at times. 9/10

7. Drink From The Cup Of Heresy - Very dark and disturbing...loving it haha. 9/10

8. Devouring The Feeble - The riffs are quite head crushing. 8/10

9. Earthrot - Great lyrics and amazing vocals. 9/10

10. Hades Rising - Quite Gojira like riffs at times. Great chorus and ending. 10/10

11. Wretched Human Mirror - Great ending. Fast, furious and evil 9/10

CONCLUSION: If you want great death metal...I reccomend these guys.