UMUR "Garden of Bones" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Sorcery. The album was released through Xtreem Music in May 2016. It´s the successor to "Arrival at Six" from 2013 and the second full-length studio album released since Sorcery reunited in 2009 after their initial split-up in 1997. Sorcery only managed to release one full-length studio album in "Bloodchilling Tales (1991)" in their original run, but they are widely regarded as an influential act on the early Swedish death metal scene. They released no less than three demos and one EP in the years between 1987 and 1990.

Stylistically "Garden of Bones" continues down the same old school Swedish death metal path as the material on "Arrival at Six (2013)". It´s early 90s influenced death metal with the occasional thrash and doom metal moment thrown in for variation, which is almost as unsurprising as it gets. The material on the 10 track, 51:09 minutes long album is as traditional as comes when dealing with old school Swedish death metal. That´s great in some respects, but overall "Garden of Bones" is a slightly generic listen, and Sorcery don´t really have a sound, which sets them apart from the more prolific contemporary artists and their tracks seldom stick after they have finished playing.

That doesn´t mean "Garden of Bones" isn´t a decent quality release, because it certainly is. It´s both well played, well produced, and relatively well written, it just lacks a personal sound and a few more memorable hooks. I´m still well entertained all the way through the album though and therefore a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Bloodchilling Tales" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Sorcery. The album was released through Underground Records in December 1991. Sorcery released a string of demos in the late eighties before releasing the "Rivers of the Dead" EP in 1990 and are widely considered one of the earliest and most influential (upon the Swedish scene) Swedish death metal acts. After the release of "Bloodchilling Tales" they disbanded. Sorcery reformed in 2009 and released their comeback album "Arrival at Six" in 2013.

The music on the album is old school Swedish death metal to the bone. They don´t come much more "classic" sounding than this one. Buzzing, raw and brutal guitar tone, simple straight forward drumming, and an intelligible growling vocalist, who delivers his growls with passion and bite. The album opens with an atmospheric intro and then into "Legacy in Blood", which is a great, powerful and memorable track. Sorcery never really look back from there and the rest of the album are pretty much in the same vein. So there is a lack of variation, which is a minor issue, but overall "Bloodchilling Tales" is still a strong album.

The musicianship is decent although the drums sound a bit untight to my ears. The sound production is raw and powerful and suits the music perfectly. Overall "Bloodchilling Tales" is neither the most original sounding nor the best old school Swedish death metal album out there, but for the most part it´s a solid and entertaining release in the genre. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Time Signature Infernal return...

Genre: death metal

Among the more obscure pioneers of the Swedish death metal scene are Sorcery. They may not be as well known as Dismember, Grave, or Nihilist/Entombed, but they were also there at the beginning and made important constributions to the Swedish extreme metal scene. This compilation collects the band's early demo output ranging back to 1987. It was recently reissed on Hell's Headbangers Records in a 2-disc format, which is the version reviewed here.

The first ten tracks of CD 1 capture the 1987-demo "The Arrival". The style presented to the listener here is nascent death metal - that is, it is really thrash metal taken as far as thrash metal could be taken back then with harsh vocals on top. There is a certain naivety to the compositions, although they are actually not bad at all. Some are even quite complex, and they draw on pretty strong riffage. Unfortunately the vocals are extremely annoying in every possible sense, and the lyrics are kind of juvenile. While the latter is forgivable, the former is not - especially because the vocals are very dominant in the mix, too. My favorite tracks on the album are definitely the instrumentals, such as 'March of the Mountain King' (evolving around the theme from 'Hall of the Mointain King') and the super epic masterpiece 'Flight of the Sorceress'.

The remaining tracks on CD one capture the 1988-demo "Ancient Creation", and the style is very different here. Involving blastbeats and fast tremolo picking, Sorcery sound more like a crossbree between a raw black metal band and a grindcore band on these tracks. The exaggerated use of reverb on the vocals only add to the black metal feel.

The first five tracks of CD 2 capture the 1989-demo "Unholy Crusade", and again we see a change in direction, this time toward simple death thrash. The next three tracks represent "aculated Life" from 1992 and yet another change in musical direction, as these tracks are much more in the vein of the harsh and dirty d-beat-infused Stockholm death metal sound. The remainder of CD 2 consists of various material.

Needless to say, we are dealing with lo-fi productions here, which may be plainly unlistenable to some. But back in the 80s and 90s, they simply did not have the technology today, and most demo material was recorded using 8 track tape recorders (or 16 track if you were really lucky). Thus, on a lot of the tracks on this release, the guitar is reduced to a muddy buzz or a fuzzy hiss, while the drums sound either like pots & pans or cardboxes, and the mix is totally imbalanced. That's just how things were back then. Older fans of metal are probably going to find this production a charming and nostalgic blast from the past, and younger fans are invited to check out this compilation so they can hear which conditions we old farts had to work under back in the day. The production on CD 2 is much better, but still lo-fi, it should be mentioned.

This is primarily directed at fans of the band, and may not be of interest to everybody. Nonetheless, it is very interesting how "Unholy Creations" document the history and stylistic changes of Sorcery. Recommended to fans of the band, and - more generally - people who are interested in the history of Swedish extreme metal.

UMUR "Arrival at Six" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Sorcery. The album was released through Xtreem Music in January 2013. The band´s debut full-length studio album "Bloodchilling Tales" was released as far back as 1991 and soon after it´s release Sorcery disbanded. The band however reformed in 2009 and "Arrival at Six" is the first full-length studio album released after the reformation.

Sorcery are along with acts like Entombed (Nihilist), Dismember, Grave and Carnage, one of the originators of the old school Swedish death metal style and even though it´s been many years since those seminal days of Swedish death metal, the music on "Arrival at Six" more or less sounds like the music from those days. The sound production is not as murky as on many of the early releases in the genre, but the music style is very reminiscent of especially Dismember (with a few nods toward Entombed), even though I´d say the authentic occult and murky darkness of the late eighties/early nineties death metal releases is abscent from "Arrival at Six". Sorcery don´t deviate one bit from the "classic" old school Swedish death metal style and while they play with both conviction and passion, it´s hard not to feel that "Arrival at Six" is a pretty generic sounding release.

It´s in the songwriting department that Sorcery don´t reach the heights of the best in the style, and after a couple of tracks the album becomes a slightly tedious listen. It´s not bad by any means and I´m relatively entertained while the album is playing, but it´s not a very memorable release after it has finished playing. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.