Time Signature Metal supremacy...

Genre: death metal

Do you remember the Swedish death metal scene back in the 90s?

Melodeath, you say? No, before melodeath.

Yeah, that's right. The Stockholm scene of the early 90s.

Do you remember how primitive and dirty the music was back then? The Stockholm sound was something entirely different from the more melodic and steramlined Gothenburg sound. Drawing on American acts like Obituary, Necrophagia, and Possessed, the Stockholm-based death metal band injected a good dose of crust and hardcore punk, and upped the dirty fuzz and the primitivity. This type of music is making its way back onto the metal scene, and now it has gone global!

One band that has embraced the Stockholm sound and mastered it to perfection is the American act Terminate. Their debut full-length Ascending To Red Heavens is all the proof you need. Drawing on old school death metal chaos and the brutal dirty Stockholm sound, the album is an onslaught of aggressive energy from beginning to end. Combining this type of riffage with crusty energy and the attitude of hardcore, Terminate have chosen the no-nonsense path ln this album. A major attraction point here is the riffage itself which is crushing and brutal and goes perfectly together with the dirty guitar sound.

The production is retro in the sense that Terminate have managed to capture the dirty fuzz of the 90s Stockholm sound, and, needless to say, it sounds bloody awesome. The only drawback is that Alfred Mulle's bass is inaudible most of the time, and I think that a bit more bass frequency could have made the album absolutely flawless by old scholl death metal standards.

Still, Ascending To Red Heavens is a prime example of how primitive old school death metal's ability to brutally kick ass is timeless. Any death metal enthusiast should acquire this album ASAP.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)