Considering that Bastard Priest has been around for nearly a decade and only released one demo plus this debut is atypical of the Swedeath scenes usually prolific release rate. One feels the band has missed out on the resurgence of filth infested chainsaw riffing that has been seeping into death metal recently. A quick check and it appears that this contains tracks from a couple of demos and a few new ones too. This reprobate duo loves anything that is recorded minimally as I also get the impression that the guys have been weaned on some old crustcore of the Anti-Cimex and Discharge ilk which is no bad thing when the sound you’re after is the echoing pulverising slugfest that Bastard Priest does exceptionally well.
“Blasphemy From Hell” is as old school as it comes, the difference here being it’s played well and safely controlled within Swedeath’s strict parameters of filth, and here lies the issue for me. This kind of music should be fucking dangerous not safe and being the old git that I am I’ve heard plenty of dirty death metal over the years to know the difference. Suffice to say this is executed cleanly with “Visions Of Doom” having some Venom like riffing and a guttural echoed vocal bark that works fine. In places there are times when the music does veer dangerously out of control such as on “Evil Pain” which has drums running amok amongst the riffing bedlam and for me that makes the music much better. The same applies to “Total Mutilation” and “Power Of Death”, the latter having a huge Entombed vibe running through it.
There are some cheesy moments on the vocals, like howls etc on the title track as I detected a bit of the slower very early Napalm Death within the battery and some brilliant Dismember like solos. In fact there are any numbers of influences on this from Sarcofago evilness to Grave riffing annihilation. The tracks from the 2008 demo “Merciless Insane Death” continue with “From Beyond” with distorted leads and rampaging drums having as much finesse as Mike Sus had on “Seven Churches” (by Possessed if you’ve been living under a rock). The title track from said demo has tons of Dismember like atmosphere on the opening riff before delving into speedy black thrash mania. There is little to fault with this release apart from wanting to hear it about five or six years ago when this scene was returning to the forefront of true death metal. If a nasty screwed up filth fest is your thing then this should be right down your grubby little alley, hmmmm. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Oh well.
http://www.myspace.com/bastardpriestsweden
