Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Like An Ever Flowing Stream" is an ear-crushing landmark album for Death Metal.

Dismember are a Swedish Death Metal band from the nineties, and are praised as some of the most influential and important bands of the genre, mainly because of their debut album “Like An Ever Flowing Stream”, one of the key LPs of old school Death Metal.

Like a lot of similar bands, Dismember were focused on giving a brutal impact with their music: the first thing that pops up about these compositions are the crushingly heavy, distorted guitars. Hearing them makes you think of mountains crumbling down in fast motion. The vocals also are greatly guttural, nasty, and fierce. With the typical old school DM sound, the music is rough sounding and thrashy, and gives the perfect touch to the tracks. Sometimes a vocal chorus might subtly come in, to give a more unearthly feel, really giving the idea of this music, visceral as it is, coming strait from the center of the earth, born from the lava and rocks.

It’s thematic nature also is not different from the one of most Death Metal bands: what make the lyrics interesting is that the persona seems to be the same, but his actions and characteristics change from song to song, as if a story narrated his changes: on the first track, this narrator seems to be reluctant yet resigned about dying and to go to hell, but by the second and third track, he gets progressively more sadistic in his actions. Then in “Skin Her Alive” it almost looks like he’s somewhat guilty of his killings, yet with the track following he continues his work of evil. On the final track, it’s a sort of goodbye to the audience.

With only thirty minutes of length, “Like An Ever Flowing Stream” features eight tracks, all of them extremely consistent to the sound and to the attitude. This truly is like an immense, fuzzy ball of mayhem and destruction falling down a hill, and disintegrates every single thing that comes in its way. It leaves quite an impact on the listener, who despite the short life of the album is overwhelmed by the intensity. Starting with the powerfully memorable “Override To The Overture”, the album doesn’t lose it’s quality throughout it’s length, emphasizing the impact: from the shorter episodes like “Soon To Be Dead” and “Skin Her Alive”, to the more stretched out ones like “In Death’s Sleep” and “Dismembered”.

Thanks to it’s sheer brutality, “Like An Ever Flowing Stream” is still today regarded as Death Metal milestone; for any fan of the genre, this is a must.

Diogenes Mmm, old school Swedish death metal. Sludgy, dirty, and 100% evil. Dismember was one of the founding fathers of the movement (Carnage hiatus included), bringing the exceptionally heavy style to the metal forefront in the late 80s and early 90s. While they’ve remained strong in modern times, it’s their first effort that set the tone for the massive outbreak of death metal in Europe in the 90s; and it came surprisingly close to perfection while doing so.

The reason why Like an Everflowing Stream is so legendary (to me, anyway), is the remarkable blend of aggression, melody, brutality, and technical prowess that it features. I really haven’t heard anything quite like it before. There are loads of death metal bands out there nowadays claiming to be “technical brutal melodic progressive blackened death metal with thrash influences” (or some other annoyingly long description), but none of them pull it off like Dismember did…in 1991. You can go through this album and easily pick out the parts that are melodic and the parts that are bone-crushingly heavy, but be just as satisfied with taking in all of the elements at once. It’s just so coherent and wholesome. Waaay ahead of its time in so many ways.

The album is short, with 8 songs spanning a total of just over 31 minutes (10 songs totaling about 40 minutes if you get the reissue), but rest assured that there is no lack of good material here; in fact, it’s the opposite. You’d be hard pressed to find any filler on this album. Each track is a cornucopia of classic death metal riffs, which once again, bind melody and heaviness with great care. Override of the Overture sets the perfect tone for the rest of the album, containing the BEST old school death metal riff you will ever hear in your life. It’s right around 3:15. Listen to it. Embrace it. Worship it. It’s among the many riffs that will absolutely throttle you while listening to this. Did you think that straight-up death metal can’t be catchy? Think again, sucker. I must have played this song 20 times over the first time I heard it. And here’s the kicker: every song is like this. Yes, EVERY SONG. Yeah, they’re short, but that’s just because the band packed so much killer into each of them. Each song is like a compacted ball of evil awesomeness. Evil runs rampant through the riffs of Bleed for Me. Dismembered is half sweet, sweet melody and half total asskickery. And Skin Her Alive, well, that song got Nuclear Blast taken to court for being so damn awesome (actually, they were looking for obscene and indecent material. They found none). That should give you an idea of just how cool this stuff is.

One knock against this style of metal is that in its early days, it wasn’t very technical. Yeah, most Swedish death metal bands were heavy as all get out, but there was plenty of sloppy playing going on under those muddy guitar tones. But sloppiness is one thing you will not find here. Oh no. The musicians in Dismember were well above average at this time. David Blomqvist and Robert Sennebäck throw riff after riff at you with rigor and energy, each striking its target like a smart bomb blowing the hell out of the latest terrorist establishment. The drummer, Fred Estby, is of particular note here, being especially solid with his double bass and cymbal work. He throws a couple of time changes in there for good measure, all of which is more impressive when coupled with the fact that he was only 19 when this album was recorded. And Matti Kärki’s vocals hit the death metal spot right on target; not too incoherent, but evil and aggressive enough to add to the overall atmosphere and piss off all of your neighbors. Of course, some of the members of Dismember got their trial run in with Carnage the year before, but that takes nothing away from their efforts on Like an Everflowing Stream. This is the sound of a band firing on all cylinders, and it’s amazing.

Everything else on this album is about the norm that you’d hear for a Swedish death metal band at the time. The lyrics are about things such as hell, body parts being chopped off, anti-religion, and all that good stuff (once again, perfect if you have some people living around you that you aren’t fond of). The production is just about perfect, considering that it’s 1991 and the engineering in Sweden hadn’t yet caught up with that of American recordings; the drums are a little thin, but that’s a non-issue when you consider that the guitars sound absolutely sublime. Each of those crushing riffs is magnified by a sludgy and downtuned guitar tone, and they’re still clear enough to, you know, actually hear the notes that David and Robert are playing. It isn’t over-produced, as there’s still somewhat of a hollowness during the solos, but this ends up adding to the atmosphere instead of removing from it.

Like an Everflowing Stream is a genre-defining classic, there’s no doubt about it. The amount of influence it had on both sides of the death metal spectrum is undeniable. However, unlike a lot of prototypical metal albums, this one withstands the test of time and is still one of the best that the genre has to offer today. Definitely a must-have for any death metal fan.

UMUR Indecent and Obscene is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Dismember. The album was released in December 1993 by Nuclear Blast Records. Indecent and Obscene has seen a couple of re-issues. The digipack version which includes the Pieces (1992) EP is probably the version to purchase if you´re looking to buy the album. the original album only contains 9 tracks and a playing time of 35:15 minutes, so the addition of the EP is quite the bonus IMO.

The music on the album is old school Swedish death metal. Most songs are pretty simple and direct but there are a couple of more intricate tracks featured on the album too. I´d say both Souldevourer and especially the Dismember "classic" Dreaming in Red are examples of the more intricate tracks on the album. The latter is also notable for being the best track on the album. I´m afraid I have to add unfortunately here though, as the rest of the tracks simply pale in comparison. I´ve had Indecent and Obscene since it was released and I´ve always found the album to be a great disappointment compared to the unique and excellent debut album Like an Everflowing Stream (1991). It´s like Dismember disregarded everything that worked well on the debut when they wrote the songs for Indecent and Obscene ( except for the two above mentioned tracks and maybe also Skinfather). The songs simply sound too much the same and generally lack memorable hooks. It´s brutal allright, but where´s the charm?

The production also has an unpleasant noisy sound to it, that doesn´t help the songs stand out.

You should think that I was warned by the rather weak Pieces EP, but I expected Pieces to be a one of. It´s sad to see such a great act falling from grace this soon, but that´s how Indecent and Obscene feels like compared to Like an Everflowing Stream. When that is said Indecent and Obscene is still a somewhat decent old school Swedish death metal album, but just think how great the album could have been if they had composed more standout tracks like Dreaming in Red. A 2.5 - 3 star rating is warranted.

UMUR Like an Everflowing Stream is the debut full-length studio album by legendary Swedish death metal act Dismember. One of the pioneers of the genre Dismember are generally held in high regard by fans of the Swedish old School death metal genre. Released in 1991 Like an Everflowing Stream is widely considered a classic Swedish old school death metal album. I´ve had the album since it´s release but I don´t listen to Dismember much these days. So listening to Like an Everflowing Stream after quite a few years where I haven´t given it spins was a quite nostalgic experience for me. The album cover of my old LP is dark and beautiful so say the least. Graced with a time typical Dan Seagrave cover artwork and a back cover with a picture of the band without shirts and covered in blood, Dismember entered the scene. The album was recorded in the now famous Sunlight Studios in March 1991 and produced by Tomas Skogsberg and Dismember drummer Fred Estby. In addition to the band the album features a guest appearance by Entombed drummer Nicke Andersson who plays all guitar leads on the album except the one in Override of the Overture which is played by Dismember guitarist David Blomqvist. I´m not sure why Nicke Andersson plays the solos on the album but he is quite the asset IMO.

The music on the album is brutal death metal with gory lyrics about Serial killers, dismemberment and other unpleasant subjects. The song Skin Her Alive actually prompted an obscenity charge in the United Kingdom, against which the band successfully defended themselves. Now I said the music is brutal but as Dismember are Swedish they never forget melody. This is not melodic Swedish death metal but take a listen to the first couple of minutes of a song like Dismembered or the solo in that same song or the solo in Override of the Overture. Great well balanced melodic content that never take away focus from the brutal nature of the music. The original LP version only has 8 tracks while the 1996 CD re-release include the songs Deathevocation and Defective Decay. I haven´t heard those two songs but I assume they are in about the same style as the other material on the album.

The production is dark but powerful. It´s actually an album I enjoy listening to alot and one of the reasons is the good sound.

Like an Everflowing Stream is a classic Swedish death metal album and on top of that it´s actually an excellent listening experience too with its great balance between brutality and melodic content. A 4 star rating is well deserved.