Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery

Published October 31 2008

*=Staff's pick	At The Behest Of Their Death Process Of Disillumination Slaughtering The Will To Live* Mock The Cross Treasonous* Iesous* Drink From The Cup Of Heresy Devouring The Feeble* Earthrot Hades Rising* Wretched Human Mirror

Genre	Death Metal	Mikael Åkerfeldt	Vocals
Tracks	11	Anders Nyström	Guitar
Runningtime	42 Min.	Per Eriksson	Guitar
Label	Peaceville Records	Jonas Renkse	Bass
Release	08 October 2008	Martin Axenrot	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	Morbid Angel

With all the talent involved in Swedish death metal-group Bloodbath, one might think that such great material is wasted on something that is merely a "side-project" and therefore hardly being the prime focus for members of high-profile bands like Opeth and Katatonia. Since the first signs of life in 2000 with the EP Breeding Death the band has proved with several great releases how much this genre means to them, and their love has rubbed off on me as well. The nightmare now continues with The Fathomless Mastery, their third full-length album.

At the birth of Bloodbath, Opeth's front man Mikael Åkerfeldt handled the vocals. When he left, Peter "Pain" Tägtgren took over on the second album Nightmare Made Flesh, but now Åkerfeldt is back on board. No offense to Pain, but this feels like the real line-up to me. Åkerfeldt is a masterful growler, and with the help of Christian Älvestam (ex-Scar Symmetry), it takes no genius to figure out that the vocals department is excellent. The music also impresses, it might take a while to digest some of things the guys are doing, but in the end the brutal songs are great. There are few chances to catch your breath, and on these rare occasions you always know that the next disturbing guitar line lurks around the corner.

There are no catchy tracks on par with for example the track Eaten from the previous album, which is perhaps the only real flaw of the album, as I see it. There is little that stands out, the material isn't as diverse as on the albums where Dan Swanö was part of the line-up, and his more melodic contributions are missed here. It seems for example that when Swanö departed, he took most of the guitar harmonies along with him, which is a bit of a shame. On the other hand, it makes the few harmonies there are here shine extra much, like the grandiose ending of Hades Rising.

Despite the few complaints, on the whole this is a very impressive death metal-release. Be warned, this might not be an album to listen to while doing the dishes, for example. Instead, The Fathomless Mastery is one of those creations that require your full attention, and after quite a few spins it rewards you greatly for your efforts.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	7	7	8	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Niklas