BloodbathSweden's Bloodbath is a supergroup of sorts, featuring Mikael Akerfeldt (vocals) and Martin Axenrot (drums) (he replaced Dan Swano) from Opeth, Anders Nystrom (guitar) and Jonas Renkse (bass) from Katatonia and Per Eriksson (guitar). They play a somewhat traditional death metal style with some ‘progressive' moments here and there but nothing too prominent. Thus far they have released an EP titled "Breeding Death" and later, a full length titled "Resurrection Through Carnage". I have only heard their debut EP and not the full length, so I cannot draw comparisons between Akerfeldt and their singer on their full length, Pete Tagtgren. But Akerfeldt has one the strongest voices in the genre in my opinion.
This mini-CD contains four new songs that total over 15 minutes. The EP opens up with "Blasting The Virginborn", which is the best song on the EP. A slight whirlwind effect and the band is off, blast beats dominate the first 30 seconds of the song until the band tears into a groovy riff. After the first minute the band then starts to incorporate some evil sounding minor harmonies. A pretty sweet solo enters the song at the 2:03 mark and lasts until 2:30, and they end the song how they started, with the sound of swirling wind which they use to set them up for the next song. The next track "Weak Aside" has plenty of pummeling double bass and some blast beats but this song starts to show the band incorporating more melodeath in their writing. The third track, "Sick Salvation" starts off a lot like "Blasting The Virginborn", this time using more prominent tremolo picking though. After the initial assault they completely stop everything and transition into another groovy riff. Towards the end of the song, the riffing reminds me a bit of Suffocation. The fourth and final song, "Mouth of Empty Praise" is the second best track on the EP. It features outright brutality in the form of blast beats and chunky riffing with a nice touch of "progressive" melodic riffing.
The sound of the recording is good overall. The drum tone is really solid and everything has the proper levels though they could've been a bit louder. The guitar tone is really good and the use of reverb sounds great. The bass has enough presence to be heard but more would be desirable, and the tone of the bass is a bit flat but in a strange way it kind of works with the reverb that is used.
Though the band had the idea of what they wanted to do with the art, they offered the job to their fans and the fan that they choose to handle the artwork duties was Dusty Peterson, who did a helluva job! The front cover of the wolves dressed in robes, with the leader baptizing the baby in a pool of blood is just...well, awesome. The materials used to craft this layout are absolutely top notch; from the rarely used super jewel box to the amazing glossy finish on the booklet, the band and label went all out for this one.
Rating: 3.8/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: "Blasting The Virginborn" & "Mouth of Empty Praise"
Synopsis: Overall this EP is very good, it is better than the majority of new death metal that is coming out but I wouldn't call it a benchmark by any means, nor would I call it a ‘revival' of death metal, death metal is well and alive with or without this album. It is simply an enjoyable listen with aesthetically pleasing artwork. Soooo, with that said:
Check it out for yourself and be the judge. Like what you hear...then buy it!