Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Degradead
Label: Metalville Records
Release: 2011
Runtime: 40:39
Rating: 3/5
After the saturated atmosphere of wretched knockoffs from a once-mighty melodic death metal scene, there are only a few unexplored patches of gray left where you could still experience total catharsis of the senses. With most bands, like Soilwork, In Flames and, even earlier and even better, At The Gates and The Haunted, what remains is an unexplored sea of new and lesser-known names on the scene. One of them is Degradead, who, for all their youth and a relatively short ten years of existence, offer anything but pale paraphrases of what we’ve already heard. Their three albums so far prove that these Stockholm youngsters have no intention of snoozing on the laurels of old glory, and instead are yearning to fly straight into the top tier of the melodic death metal elite.
The band started writing its history back in 2000 under the name Septima. As Degradead they broke new musical ground six years later, after a successful collaboration with Jesper Strömblad, now the former guitarist of In Flames, with whom they made the full-blooded debut Til Death Do Us Apart, and their path has only pointed upward since. Slowly but steadily building on the recipe of the primal Gothenburg death metal sound with thrashy inserts, the Swedish five-piece cooks up a brutal and delicious mix of modern metal melodicism and adrenaline-soaked heavy music that puts wind in the sails of an already spoiled audience. You can’t just write these guys off or pigeonhole them because of where they’re from, since talent matters more here than geography, and the guitar duo Szücs – Nyström certainly doesn’t lack it. The rest of the Degradead artillery is right there with them, too.
Even though I’ve gorged myself on the growling melodies of Anders Frieden from the flame-scribbled In Flames over the last few years, Mikael Sehlin is still so young that he doesn’t save his strength for a second or third round like his older colleague and role model. He’s ready to go all-in from the very first moment, and besides the guttural side, his vocal range has a good dose of feel for sweet tunes and melody, which he never overdoes. The venomously explosive, if slightly predictable, opener of A World Destroyer, the song Human Nature, proves it right away. The plowing principle, if you set it next to their previous two releases, is seemingly unchanged, but with plenty of fashionable add-ons. The guitars at times sound way too much like keyboards, and the blasphemous metamorphosis of guitar distortion hangs on a completely distinct skeleton of electronics. The lads don’t overdo that the way, say, Raunchy do, but the urge to please a wider audience (especially the gentler sex) was apparently too strong to resist this senseless spoiling of the balance. And here we hit another wall of accusations! The choruses are where that cold touch of lifeless electronic stuff pokes you in the ears most obviously, and, just to make the cup overflow, Degradead decided to garnish the whole thing with a heap of clean vocals and layered harmonies. Sexy? If you’re a fan of more macho, less whiny musical iconography than pure-blooded emo, not particularly. Still, there are quite a few tasty fruits in the bunch that make you almost forget the botched moments of disappointment. One of them is undoubtedly Final Judgement, which is marred by the whiny, pointless start of the song Broken. A septic detour down the avenue of generally accepted drivel could be chalked up to the fashion fads of one-day wonders with overdone quiffs and label-ordered neck tattoos, but death metal warriors are hard to forgive for the lapse. And there’s no shortage of such acrobatics on A World Destroyer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAmtEKmQRIA
The balance between genius, inspiration and silliness is really easy to wreck with a single swing. Despite all the above, though, the whole thing is very listenable, and even if after a good forty minutes you suddenly feel cheap and perversely trend-driven, the record is anything but a hollow parade of nothingness. The album works and, believe it or not, doesn’t stick in your throat like a bone, but wins you over more with every moment of exposure and every song. It’s not so much about the pleasure and complete satisfaction of all passions you get, say, from the American gem by Lazarus A.D., but with the third blow from Degradead, we hope the Vikings will finally shake off the fashionable add-ons and roar out a fourth one without the needless sweet melodies.
Lineup
Michel Bärzén – bass
Kenneth Helgesson – drums
Anders Nyström – guitar
David Szücs – guitar
Mikael Sehlin – vocals
Production
Jonas Kjellgren
Tracklist
1. Human Nature
2. A Taste Of Destiny
3. A False Hope
4. The Final Judgement
5. Broken
6. Part Of The System
7. No One Prevail
8. Cold Blood
9. Near The End
10. Kept In The Dark
