UMUR "Fable Frolic" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Comecon. The album was released through Century Media Records in July 1995. It´s the successor to "Converging Conspiracies" from 1993 and features the core two-piece lineup of Rasmus Ekman and Pelle Ström (both on guitars, bass, keyboards, and drum programming) and new session vocalist Marc Grewe (at that point the lead vocalist of German death metal act Morgoth). Grewe replaces Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx), who sang on "Converging Conspiracies (1993)".

"Fable Frolic" was recorded at Sunlight Studios in December 1994, and features the characteristic old school death metal buzzaw guitar sound of that recording studio, but other than that the music style on "Fable Frolic" is not your standard Swedish old school death metal. I´d label it alternative Swedish death metal or something like that, because while the basis of the music is arguably pretty standard early 90s Swedish death metal, Comecon twist the conventions of the genre and challenge the listener with oddly placed acoustic breaks, groove laded riffs, programmed drums, and a generally adventurous songwriting approach, occasionally bordering progressive territories...

...and should be hailed for trying something different from the contemporary norm. When that is said the material on the album aren´t particulary memorable and the stiff and artificial sounding programmed drums aren´t exactly a plus either. This is definitely a case where a human drummer could have made the listening experience much better. Grewe is a great death metal vocalist, but here he sounds a little monotone and it´s like Comecon fail to use his vocal abilities in the best possible way.

So upon conclusion "Fable Frolic" more or less leaves me with the same feeling as its two predecessors, which is an album of standard quality material (which shouldn´t be confused with standard songwriting, because that would be a wrong statement in this case), decent musicianship, and a sound production a little sub par to other contemporary Sunlight Studios productions. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Converging Conspiracies" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Comecon. The album was released through Century Media Records in November 1993. Comecon was a project more than a "real" band and they released three studio albums in the years 1992 - 1996, featuring three different vocalists. The band´s debut album "Megatrends in Brutality (1992)" featured L-G Petrov on vocals (who at the time was unemployed after being fired from Entombed in 1991). "Converging Conspiracies" features Dutch singer Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx) on vocals.

Stylistically the music is old school Swedish death metal, but not the most standard representation of the style, as Comecon incorporate elements from other music styles and even some "light" avant garde type moments. van Drunen was always the embodiment of old school death metal, so I´m actually a bit surprised to hear him participating here, but there is of course still a good deal of old school death metal brutality present here, to make up for the occasional "different" sounding moments on the album.

To my ears the unconventional elements of the band´s sound often don´t work that well though, and they would probably have been better off keeping it simple and more traditional. As it is "Converging Conspiracies" sits a bit between two chairs and could have prospered from a more consistent and less adventurous style. The musical performances are decent (including van Drunen´s tortured growling), and the (at the time unconventional) choice of using drum programming instead of a human drummer, isn´t something that neither does good nor bad things for the music.

"Converging Conspiracies" features a sound production which is decent for the time, but nothing out of the ordinary, and upon conclusion "Converging Conspiracies" is a pretty standard quality old school Swedish death metal release, even though it features some different/unconventional sounding elements. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Megatrends in Brutality" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Comecon. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 1992. Comecon was a project more than a "real" band and they released three studio albums in the years 1992 - 1996, featuring three different vocalists. "Megatrends in Brutality" features L-G Petrov on vocals. He was unemployed at the time as he had been kicked out of Entombed in 1991, alledgedly because of a situation that involved Entombed drummer Nicke Andersson´s girlfriend. L-G Petrov and Entombed would patch up their differences though and Petrov rejoined the band again in late 1992.

The music on "Megatrends in Brutality" is old school Swedish death metal, complete with crunchy downtuned guitars, morbid leads, growling intelligible vocals and D-beat drumming. Actually the drumming varies quite a lot with both D-beats, blast beats, and mid-paced heavier beats. The riffing is on the punked side at times but ultimately this is pretty typical old school Swedish death metal. Maybe that´s why "Megatrends in Brutality" seldom gets the recognition I think it deserves. It doesn´t stand out enough from the crowd, but I´m pretty sure fans of the genre will find it greatly enjoyable.

The musicianship, the sound production, and the songwriting are strong although seldom reaching excellence but less is sometimes enough and I think that´s the case with "Megatrends in Brutality", which is overall just a good representation of old school Swedish death metal. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.