Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage

*=Staff's pick	Ways To The Grave So You Die* Mass Strangulation Death Delirium* Buried By The Dead The Soulcollector Bathe In Blood* Trail Of Insects Like Fire Cry My Name

Genre	Death Metal	Mikael Åkerfeldt	Vocals
Tracks	10	Anders Nyström	Guitar
Runningtime	41 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Jonas Renkse	Bass
Release	25 Nov. 2002	Dan Swanö	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Entombed, Grave, Dismember

Did you belong to those who strained your neck muscles to early Grave, Entombed's first classic albums and played air guitar to Dismember's debut? Do you long for that good, old time to come back again? Well - then run out and pick up a copy of Bloodbath's first fulllength album, and your metal summer is saved. On the paper, this is a an impressive constellation. A selection of four of Swedens finest death musicians (Åkerfeldt (Opeth), Nyström (Katatonia, Diabolical Masquerade), Renkse (Katatonia, October Tide) and Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Nightingale), decided to collaborate in a project to kick life in the old, classic death metal like is was supposed to sound. The first MCD, consisting of 3 songs, came out in the year 2000 and was actually not supposed to be released at first, as it was recorded for fun in a weekend. Eventually it was, nevertheless, and became a minor succes in the scene. The work than began on this debutalbum, and the ready result is impressive.

Nothing really new is being delivered here, noone can deny that. Simply described, the music sound nothing more, nothing less than a hybrid of Dismember riffs, having a Grave-sounding guitar sound, a flow that can be found on Entombed's milestone of a debut, and everything topped with vocals that might make Glen Benton afraid of the dark. Everything is clad in a modern shape and it's highly noticable that the musicianship is top notch, and a bit better than back in the days. Even though it is world class performance by every member in the band, singer Åkerfeldt delivers the best act of them all here. The vocals are awesome, and totally crushes most of the competition in the genre, as earlier mentioned. It is different from what he does in Opeth, here it is more brutal, thicker but yet very clear.

Nothing much else to say about this, really. If you are a fan of the old school death metal from the era when early 90's swedish death metal bands were born and bred, and the Sunlight Studio productions were blooming like never before - then this is an album you should make a run for in this very moment. It does not get much better than this nowadays. The few minus points I have to hand out are: even though there are far from one weak song (it always feels funny to call this "songs", it's more like "blasts"), it tend to sound a bit alike, but this genre and style has never really made itself known for variation and exploring new paths. It is in fact a bit more varied than most death metal albums. The guitar sound is also at some (very short) parts just too much over the top, and gets a bit messy, a bit leaning towards the first Grave albums.

After this album was released, Åkerfeldt has stepped aside and as new vocalist was this year announced. The new man onboard is none less than Peter Tägtgren (also in Hypocrisy, Pain and a renowned producer in the metal scene). One icon steps out, and another one enters. The follow up to this album will be interesting to hear. I'm all in favour for another round of this.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	9	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tommy