Desultory - Into Eternity

*=Staff's pick	Into Eternity* Depression Tears* Chill Within Visions* Twisted Emotions* Forever Gone* Passed Away Asleep

Genre	Death Metal	Klas Morberg	Vocals
Tracks	9	Klas Morberg	Guitar
Runningtime	47 Min.	Stefan Poge	Guitar
Label	Metal Blade	Hakan Morberg	Bass
Release	02 Feb. 1993	Thomas Johnson	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

After having listened for this album numerous times back in the days, it has now been almost a decade since. I recently came across it again and decided to relive some of the memories, and - damn it if it's not just as good and competative nowadays as it ever was. It simply is a great death metal release, and is in my eyes very underrated and deserves to be brought forth before the public eyes.

Desultory was active during the first stage of the swedish death metal scene when it was starting to grow beyond the garage level for real, along with names like Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Unleashed and their likes. The mentioned bands all more or less made a big name for themselves, but unfortunatly Desultory never reached that far, even though I consider them being equals.

Since it is - as so many albums from this time - recorded in the legendary Studio Sunlight by Thomas Skogsberg, you already there encounter the death metal feeling from that era, but what differ this a bit from other releases from the same time are a couple of things. First the fact that the sound landscape is a bit clearer and "crisper", instead of being a bit thick and sometimes messy like it could be back than. You actually hear almost every word of Morbergs vocals even though he carries out quite a growl, and the guitar sound is far from as tuned down as you are used to from back than. The other thing is that there are a lot of thrash elements included, and they also focus a lot on melodies and leads, instead of being as brutal, fast and bone crushing as they can. In fact this is not especially fast - it is intense enough, but grind parts are not present.

It is hard to pick any song or part of the album before an other, because it is very solid and equally strong all over. First and foremost great riffs, but overall good songwriting makes way for an entertaining ride through the more aggressive variation of metal. The musicians are all very talanted, and that shows especially in the solo and drum area. Forever Gone is a perfect song for you to check up on what Desultory is all about: A slow but heavy classic intro to a death metal song followed by a fat, rolling death metal riff, great intense vocals, a thrashy midsection, back to the death riff again - it just has it all, and is a classic.

This album stands strong even faced with todays competition, and it is basically a must-check-out for you who are a fan of the scene at that time but unfortunatly have missed out on this band.

Desultory later released 2 albums - the equally good and worthy follow up Bitterness (1994), and the experimental failure Swallow The Snake (1996) - before they dissolved into history, and are today no more. It is not known if the members today are involved in any other projects or bands. Too bad.

See also review of: Through Aching Aeons

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	8,5	9
Nostalgiafactor
9
Summary
9 chalices of 10 - Tommy