Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Lik
Label: Wall of Sound
Release: year_month
Length: 35:21
Rating: 4.5/5
It’s been almost thirty years since Nihilist first turned a Boss HM2 pedal up to 11, and the flag of Swedish death metal still flies high today. Still, a pretty big hole opened up in the genre when Dismember, one of the big four of Swedish death metal, went into early retirement. Stockholm’s Lik decided to fill that gap, and with their debut Mass Funeral Evocation they’ve done way more than just that.
And since death metal is my first love, I felt the butterflies in my stomach from the opening notes of the killer Serum 141. Only Lik show their love the way Hannibal does for whatever he serves up on the plate. The parallels, Dismember above all, are loud and clear, but the meal Lik are dishing out is fresh and goes down a treat anyway. Don’t expect any wild innovations, but this mix of that classic chainsaw sound sawing through bone, the cult Sunlight studio tone and melodic Gothenburg touches is more potent than anything we’ve heard in ages.
But the strength of this Swedish Corpse’s debut isn’t just that. It’s something only a handful of death metal releases have pulled off this year – an incredibly strong set of songs. Out of the ten corpses on the album, every single one could be the lead single, which doesn’t mean any of them is some »radio friendly« ditty. It’s a raw, meat-grinder assault of fantastic riffs (you’ll need a magnifying glass to find better riffing this year!), sick vocals and killer »cheesy« lyrics. Lik line up the killers one after another like a serial murderer racking up victim after victim. Each one is a story of its own, yet also a piece of a bigger puzzle that, as a whole, reveals the full, brilliant picture of a depraved mind.
Quick, three-to-four-minute guerrilla raids deliver a ton in a short time, and at thirty-five minutes Mass Funeral Evocation is the ideal length for a perfect death metal album. Lik are well aware of the limits retro death metal draws, but that hardly slows down their bloody march, because they spice things up in all the right places. The outstanding epic about the slaughter of World War I, Le morte homme, with its central melodic passage, is a big hommage to Iron Maiden (roughly the way Dismember paid tribute to them on Under A Bloodred Sky) and a strong reminder of the mightiest years of the Gothenburg sound. Endless Oceans of Blood, with its infectious chorus, brings At the Gates to mind. Necromancer creeps in quietly with intricate tremolo picking, right next to the ultra-heavy Skin Necrosis, whose lyrics even Cannibal Corpse wouldn’t shy away from, with skin and limbs falling off the body in chunks (»Ugh, there goes my thumb!«). Lik close out this good half-hour debut with a morbid crescendo in the form of the epic death behemoth Trail of Entrails, leaving nothing behind but an endless ocean of blood.
Lik aren’t reheating old corpses, but this Swedish take on death metal on Mass Funeral Evocation sounds more convincing and fresh than anything since Indecent And Obscene. Everything clicked for Lik on this debut – a perfect blend of the Stockholm and Gothenburg styles, convincing riffing, just-depraved-enough vocals and even more depraved lyrics make Mass Funeral Evocation one of the strongest contenders for (death) metal album of the year!
Line-up
Mathias Blom – bass
Christofer Barkensjo – drums, vocals
Niklas Sandin – guitar
Tomas Akvik – vocals, guitar
Tracklist
1. Serum 141
2. Le morte homme
3. Ghoul
4. Death Orgasmic
5. Sickening
6. Endless Oceans of Blood
7. Behold the Beheaded
8. Necromancer
9. Skin Necrosis
10. Trail of Entrails
