Dismember - Dismember Review
Posted by Dan Haggerty on 10.11.2008
One of the original Swedish death metal bands is back with a new album. You've been warned.
One of the founding bands of the Swedish death metal scene, and one of the twin pillars death metal was built upon, Dismember has enjoyed a long and celebrated career as masters of an extreme form of metal, born out of the remains of the infamous Carnage to rain terror down on the world. No small feat when you consider that the average music fan considers metal itself already to be the extreme end of music, most not realizing there is lands far more brutal where bands like Dismember ruled supreme.
Fifteen years later, does the band still have what it takes?
Track Listing
1. Death Conquers All 03:48
2. Europa Burns 03:33 [view lyrics]
3. Under A Blood Red Sky 05:24
4. The Hills Have Eyes 03:15
5. Legion 03:22
6. Tide of Blood 03:35
7. Combat Fatigue 02:29
8. No Honour In Death 03:07
9. To End It All 03:51
10. Dark Depth 03:48
11. Black Sun 06:24
Total playing time 42:36
Current Line-Up
Matti Kärki - Vocals
David Blomqvist - Guitars
Martin Persson - Guitars
Tobias Christiansson - Bass
Thomas Daun - Drums
Collectors Information
None.
The Review
Death metal as a subgenre of metal comes in many flavors of violence, from melodic to traditional to technical to brutal. Swedish death metal has always prided itself by having a large scene fully based on the technical brutality of its bands. If death metal is an extreme form of metal that assaults your ears, Swedish death metal out right kicks your ass.
That brings us to Dismember, one of the original Swedish death metal bands and an outfit so tough, so bad they go beyond kicking your ass to the point they also follow you home to rape and pillage the neighborhood. This trend towards traditional ear slaughtering sounds has not lessened for age, and the bands self-titled release certainly shows that the band has not slowed down. In fact, where most bands work modern metal trends into there style, Dismember starts firmly planted in the golden age of metal by displaying there influence from bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. On some tracks it’s obvious, like the full blown Maiden tribute ending to “Under a Blood Red Sky”. Others it is less obvious, buried under the sheer velocity of axes excavating your ears (see the end of “To End It All”).
This is the real deal. There is nothing mainstream or accessible about Dismember, a front to back tour de force of traditional death metal from the cold land of Sweden, a land that has always prided itself on extreme music. This is not the place to jump in and learn about death metal for the first time, as this is the deep end of the pool and filled with pre-Jurassic terrors.
But what a pile of headbanging, skull crushing metal this is – The band hitting with enough sheer torque to snap the neck of your average hot topic employee; a mass of riffs so fast, heavy, and raw that the edges still carry the meat from its last kill, the tone itself cutting the tracks into the vinyl. Riff after riff, rhythms buried beneath the damage, a full cacophony of majestic leads that rams the old school down your throat. This is awesome and sick at the same time.
Take opening track “Death Conquers All “. This monster starts out of the gate by hitting you repeatedly over the head for a minute and a half, a total sonic fury, then totally switches gears and settles into an almost doom-y drive of distorted and heavy as hell notes that rain down on you, a death bell going off to signal a dirge of methodically owning you that moment. Hey – Candlemass was an influence on Swedish death metal, and that corrosive ending just crushed your jaw to prove it. This is thrash taken to extreme deadly ends, and then made heavy as hell.
Or check out “Tide Of Blood”, the massive riff assault opening up the song over that great solo. It’s like hell unleashed its fury before dropping into a methodical and fast rhythm more akin to ground and pounding the countryside. “No Honor In Death” is a slower song that methodically rumbles like a tank crushing the victims of war, a theme the band highlights often in it’s lyrics. And again that solo at 2:25 is a simple thing of awesome beauty, riding quickly but brilliantly above the killing fields, before wrapping the song up… so you can get ripped open when the dogs of war are let loose on “To End It All”, machine gun riffs set all the way to genocide. More old school solos that sound like they come from Tipton himself blaze the sky while the drums double beat submission out of you. That is how you make death metal that screams.
The bad news? Well the band did record this at the infamous Sunlight Studios in Sweden, so you know what kind of raw production you’re going to get. And to highlight the issue even more the band went completely old school by recording this onto analog first. I mean, the middle ranges sound ragged and like the Marshals are hooked to diesel powered meat grinders. The idea of advancement is completely missing from this, both musically and in recoding values, for all intent purposes sounding like the band is back in the tape trading and fanzine days. It’s like the last 15+ years didn’t happen.
And I loved every brutal minute of it. If you like death metal, this is the album to pick up this year.
The 411: A massive shot of Swedish death metal that is a must own if you like extreme music, and the best album of that category to be released this year. With some nods to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, but mostly just skull frying death metal set to kill, Dismember continues to be one of the few classic bands to still carry the standard of straight up death metal. I’d strongly recommend you buy this album, but that is unnecessary. Sometime soon you’ll venture into the metal section of your favorite music store, where Dismember will jump out of the rack and go for the jugular, waiting until you stop twitching to drag you off to feast at its leisure. You’ve been warned.
