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Death Tyrant: Opus de tyranis
06/05/13 || Ironpants
Death in the circle of the tyrants.
Do you like candy? I don’t…I’m more into raw flesh, preferably from road killed badgers and the occasional cup of fermented fish guttings. But if I do eat candy, I go for liquorice caramels. Sometimes the salty strong liquorice, and sometimes the sweet liquorice the gives you that blackened taste but still leaves you with a good mild aftertaste. And you can eat a bunch of those without feeling that you get a sour stomach or rip open your ulcer.
In the history of Swedish death metal there are different schools, all with different ideas and song structures, and for those that need to put labels on things, this one belongs in the blackened death/melodic black metal category. The same category as Lord Belial, Dissection and Naglfar. It is quite underrepresented if you compare it with the Gothenburg sound or the Sunlight sound. At least when thinking of bands and releases that have put a legacy on that specific genre. I mentioned Lord Belial, and Death Tyrant is the offspring of that band. The Backelin brothers teamed up with another brother (from another mother) constellation in team Antonsson. Together they kidnapped Nárgraðr Agartha for vocal activities.
What we are served here is a very solid and stable production of trve blackened death with exactly the correct guitar melodies that are needed to get the message across. The production is well done and near old school, almost a mid 90’s sound, and it suites the album very well and everything is up to par with each other.
The album begins with a classic build up with the obligatory church bells and some nice guitar picking, before going into it’s blackened crusade. And it is quite sweet, with the mid-tempo grind, exchanging with fast double bass over atmospheric guitar melodies. The opener is just a mood settler for the whole album. We have all heard this kind of metal before, and it will continue through the whole album. What I just said could be interpreted as a degrading comment, but it is quite the opposite, because this is a really good blackened death album!!
We can break this down into smaller portions. The vocals are just there and top notch, a raspier kind of growl or harsher hissing if you want, that is the perfect choice for this style of music. The bass is classic in style, and I wish it would have been more prominent, but you hear that it is there, they could of cranked it up a few notches though. The drumming is also quite standard, but, a drummer or trained music listener hear that Mr. Antonsson is quite a tease. He blends in some fills and techniques that is rather nifty and fresh, but still controlled and held back. He’s not a show stealer, but he knows how to handle his shit!
But, the guitars are the real stars here, we get all the good things that you look for in this style. Melodic and atmospheric riffing, and the solos are different regarding death metal standards, with a more classic build up. With classic I mean a more heavy metal approach than death metal. I fucking love it.
I’m not gonna lie to you, there is really nothing new here, but the old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” actually applies to this production. This album is really solid with almost no let downs and I will spin this sucker several times for a long time. If you like melodic black metal/blackened death or whatever you wanna call it, this is a must have in your collection. If I wrap this up with a connection to the intro text, this is a big lump of sweet liquorice that will last for a long time without you feeling the need to change your candy of choice.
- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Non Serviam Records
- Website: www.death-tyrant.se
- Band
- Nárgraðr Agartha : vocals
- Thomas Backelin: guitars, vocals
- Dennis Antonsson: rhythm guitars
- Anders Backelin: bass
- Joakim Antonsson: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. The awakening of sleeping gods
- 02. Pandemonium
- 03. Ixion – The fallen king of the Lapiths
- 04. Baphomet
- 05. The end
- 06. Impending day of wrath
- 07. Tenebrae
- 08. A greater alliance
- 09. Wrath and disgust
