Wormgear
Mag (US)
Nominon "Diabolical Bloodshed"
(X-treme Records)
In the beginning there were Swedes
and this did please the gods, for their's was a particularly
brutal strain of Death Metal. But alas, through the
years this brutality either fell to misdirected stylistic
change or was overcome by the innumerable and weedly
In Flames clones. It would appear, however, that a
resurrection of sorts is at hand. Though "Diabolical
Bloodshed" may be Nominon's debut album, these
guys have been kicking around in the scene long enough
to develop some impressive skills and they certainly
possess the conviction to raise the spirit of early
90's Swedish DM. Everything's in place here, from
the Sunlight production to the cavernous and obscure
solos to the gutteral graveyard rasps, this is textbook
Swedish Death Metal and I can't think of any other
textbook I would rather read. Honestly speaking, I
am rather easy to please when it comes to this sound,
but I know the difference between adquate and damn
impressive and with its 8 songs clocking in at just
over 37 minutes, "Diabolical Bloodshed"
falls decidedly in the upper end of the spectrum.
Guitarists Jonas and Juha fire off unrelenting streams
of ripping riffage, but manage to vary the tempos
with some crunch-filled doom passages while tossing
in a good deal of agile-handed leads, drummer Emil
and bassist Lemmy hold down some punchy rhythms with
the former displaying some dextrous footwork and Nicke's
inhuman vocals come blasting out from under the floorboards.
Admittedly, if you weren't listening to this stuff
the first go around, it might just sound a bit antiquated,
but for those who remember when the Sunlight stamp
made it mandatory this could be the album you've been
longing for.
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