JOHANSSON & SPECKMANN — Sulphur Skies (review)

JOHANSSON & SPECKMANN — Sulphur Skies album cover Album · 2013 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Sulphur Skies" is the debut full-length studio album by multi-national death metal act Johansson & Speckmann. The album was released through Vic Records in June 2013. Johansson & Speckmann is a project act consisting of Rogga Johansson (guitar, bass), Paul Speckmann (vocals) and Brynjar Helgetun (drums). Especially the two former mentioned are quite prolific names on the scene. Rogga Johansson for his work with among others Demiurg, Paganizer, Ribspreader, The Grotesquery and Bone Gnawer and Paul Speckmann for his work with Death Strike, Abomination and especially Master.

So these guys are quite the seasoned bunch, and while there´s little technically challenging being played on "Sulphur Skies", it´s still obvious they know what they do. Stylistically the music on "Sulphur Skies" is old school death metal. Mostly Swedish styled with a slight D-Beat punk influence, but there are nods toward the late eighties/early nineties US scene too. So this basically sounds exactly how I imagined it would. Something along the lines of early Entombed meets Master. Especially the guitar sound is typical Swedish. Downtuned, buzzing and crunchy. The sound production is overall decent, but the drums could have prospered from a more organic sound. There are times when I wonder if the drums are programmed.

Featuring 12 tracks distributed over a 34:53 minutes long playing time "Sulphur Skies" is a relatively short and "to the point" type of album, which is only good in this case, because the songwriting isn´t particularly interesting or memorable, although "Sulphur Skies" is enjoyable enough while it plays. So while the collaboration between Johansson and Speckmann might sound great on paper, in reality it´s a pretty mediocre affair. Not bad, but not really great either and a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rot Stink Rip Death Metal
TOMBSTONER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eye Of Horus (Lightmatter EP Pt. 2) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 5 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 6 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed