Artist: Desultory
Title: Counting Our Scars
Type: Album
Label: Pulverized Records

Swedish Death Metal Legends Desultory are back after a massive 14-year break, after their initial disappearance in which they formed Zebulon. When you take into account Desultory’s importance in terms of modern metal influence, ‘Into Eternity’ and ‘Bitterness’ are for me much loved classics that trail-blazed along with the likes of Edge of Sanity and Finland’s Sentenced (‘Amok’), the integration of melodic death metal tones into the already vibrant old school (as it is now termed) ultra thick sounding Swedish death metal scene with uncompromising ease. I for one am very excited about this release, to hear this bands name just sends massive amounts of adrenaline down ones spine, all those hours listening to their older releases, even mourning their disappearance, reliving the memories through Daniel Ekeroth’s book, whose title says it all really “Swedish Death Metal”.

‘In A Cage’ opens with a melodic guitar riff, and then you get that wondrous Boss HM2 pedal distortion, massive rhythms, basic bare bones riffing, intense groove and a soul ripping vocal delivery. The sledgehammer guitar work does not reside merely on aggression, there are thoughtful and serenading guitar lines and riffs happening all throughout this initial blast of death metal genius, but never forgetting the initial undertone of true brutal heaviness without the need for pig squeals and grunts. This continues into the album’s title track and ‘This Broken Halo’ tops off the riff awards, but ‘The Moment Is Gone’ tops the atmospheric heaviness stakes. I liken this track to the Unanimated or Dissection teachings, although the latter was mostly regarded as a black metal band, they had much more death metal undertones. Desultory do a grand mix of everything, you can bash your brains to bits with the Stockholm sound and still get some culture with the Gothenburg melody. You wont find the total rawness of the ‘Into Eternity’ album, but what you will find is a well represented mix of their previous much respected efforts already mentioned (I do not refer to ‘Swallow the Snake’ in this accolade!).

This truly an essential purchase for the New Year. Desultory have made one hell of a comeback, they have moved on, and not strictly rested on their heritage, there is growth, experience and maturity evident even impeccable timing with the old Swedish Death Metal sound revival travelling around the globe at the moment. ‘Counting Our Scars’ is full of bone breaking heaviness, thoughtful melodic tones and an unrivalled talent for stellar song arrangements, something of a breath of fresh air, a difference factor. Welcome back indeed; please stay for longer this time!

http://www.myspace.com/desultoryofficial
http://www.pulverised.net/