Put together the words “Swedish”, “Death” and “Metal”, and yours truly will normally turn away, and bury myself into a pile of classic thrash albums. I’ve always preferred to be able to hear the lyrics a band has written and the combination of a death metal growl and Swedish accent are normally guaranteed to ensure that’s impossibility.
Degradead’s vocalist, Mikael Sehlim has pulled of the novel trick of actually managing to project his words through his harsh bark, a definite eyebrow raising surprise. When the opening track, “Genetic Waste” fires up, the band shows a far more thrash orientated style, firing into accomplished chugging riffs.
With track 2, “Take Control”, the band veers more into the Death style, opening with a brutal howl accompanied by the breakneck attack that is the staple of the scene, any subtlety from the first track abandoned in a full on aural assault.
It is this combination of a more melodic style of death with a thrash sensibility that runs through the whole album, vocal harmonies appearing on the chorus of tracks like “Pass Away” and “Burned”, as well as some of the operatic keyboard doodling that more and more bands are bringing in. A few of the solos even have a euro metal style of twin guitar layering I would normally associate with far lighter bands, but at the same time tracks like “Relations To The Humanity” are heavy enough to satisfy all but the most hardcore of death fans.
It is this mix of all out guitar battery, complex and satisfying riffs, and melodic breaks that take Degradead out the pigeonhole of pure death, and has me very interested in catching them live should they ever play the UK. I can only hope that when they do hit these shores they play venues with decent enough sound not to drown out their numerous subtleties that come across in their recordings. For me, the stand out track on the album is “Resemblance of the Past”, possessing the sort of riffs and key changes that put me in mind of Exodus at their prime. This classic nod to past influences is reinforced by the title track “Til Death Do Us Apart” which closes the CD. A gentle acoustic instrumental number I kept expecting to blast into a chugging guitar riff, and was both pleased and disappointed when it remained as it started, its simple nature somehow appropriate to the album.
This was an act I didn’t think I’d enjoy, and was more then pleasantly surprised. Give them a try.
http://www.myspace.com/dergradead
http://www.degradead.com
