Dismember - The God That Never Was

*=Staff's pick	The God That Never Was Shadows Of The Mutilated Time Heals Nothing Autopsy Never Forget, Never Forgive Trail of The Dead Phantoms (Of The Oath)* Into The Temple Of Humiliation Blood For Paradise Feel The Darkness Where No Ghost Is Holy

Genre	Death Metal	Matti Kärki	Vocals
Tracks	11	David Blomqvist	Guitar
Runningtime	35 Min.	Martin Persson	Guitar
Label	Regain Records	Tobias Christiansson	Bass
Release	27 Feb. 2006	Fred Estby	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

Dismember, the classic and long running swedish death metal act, made a good "comeback" to their good, old selves with the album Where Ironcrosses Grow (2004) which I think had a nice groove and flow and the songs were with a few exceptions very good.

In the shadow of that album, this is a big disappontment. It goes on routine and autopilot and practically none of the songs have any memorable hooks or riffs. Most of the material go in their characteristic and crushing style but approximatly half of the songs or even more all sounds pretty much the same and they could just as well have been the same song, and that song is not even good to begin with. I think they rushed in to the studio way too quick this time without having any real good ideas to work with. The arrangements sound sloppy and messy and make the already from the beginning mediocre songs even worse to listen to.

The only things that stick out are the occasional melodic bits here and there, and this time they are almost unusually melodic according to Dismember standards. Sometimes almost heavy/power metal-like. The instrumental track Phantoms (Of The Oath) is an example of this and I think it says something about the album when I say that it is really nothing special but still the best track on the album...

But, save just a few, the other melodic parts sound a bit misplaced on the rest of the otherwise uninspired and unfocused album. They don't fit since there is no groove to back it up in a proper way and it just sounds bad. Full force ahead and aggressivness do not alone make an album good and when it on top of it all is badly done, it turns plain and utter ridiculous. A boring relese of gargantuan proportions and far from the level of the old and glorius days.

See also review of: Where Ironcrosses Grow

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	5,5	3

Summary
3,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy