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Smothered: The inevitable end

10/02/14 || Ironpants

“Kill, kill, kill, kill!!”

Smothered is no young kid band, but it is their first official release on a label and I admit that my first thought was “OK, another Swedeath release”. And it is, but they are not really pure copycats, and they sure as hell are no innovators either. But it is in the category “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. It is like owning a car really, you take care of it, wash it, check the oil, leave it for it’s annual check at the mechanic. There will come a day when the gear box begins to malfunction a bit or you get that annoying crack in the windshield. You drive around for a while, living with that small defect, but when you finally fix that problem, it feels like a new car. You’ve added a new, fresh part to that old same thing you are used to. And you love that car.

I don’t think Smothered is out to revolutionize the industry? What they do accomplish though, is to deliver an album with a pretty fresh take on the genre and it is no old slow, saggy Swedeath here. Nope, it is nice and crisp death metal, that is vital and they work up a nice groove. If you just allow yourself to listen through the album you will find treasures if you are a friend of the genre.

First of all, the vitality I spoke of, is present throughout the album and you hear their hunger for death in all of the songs, they never really slow down and relax. It is energetic, on your toes, crushing Swedeath all the way. We are not talking ludicrous speeds, but pretty fast stuff when talking about this style. And that is one of the things that make them pretty darn interesting. It sounds cliché but when I listen to it, I remember a little bit what it was all about in the early 90’s when Entombed, Dismember and the rest of the death metal squads invaded the scene.

The excellent guitar riffage together with a drummer that know how to treat his kit makes this a rather good album. “No one left to kill” is a good example that mixes hyper speed (once again, regarding Swedeath tradition) with a crushing chorus with the words “kill, kill, kill” repeating, almost chanting, over and over and if you don’t get the message there, you probably don’t like death metal at all? And even if tracks like “Sovereign” and “Re-animated” makes you feel that you have heard it before, it feeds your needs to get your hands on quality death metal.

The overall impression is also very much standard when it comes to Swedeath, yes they have that characteristic Boss HM-2 sound on the guitars, and yes Eriksson pretty much sound as a young LG Petrov from the “Left hand path” album, but still there is something here that makes it more than just a homage album or a plain xerox copy. They’ve made a solid debut album, a good decent death metal effort that I surely recommend to anyone who likes Swedeath or death metal in general. If you don’t, well, stay back and listen to your hipster post-rock or djent crap if you want, but you know deep inside that you are wrong anyways.

Here’s a little taste, so you know what we are talking about

7,5

Information
Released: 2013
Label: Soulseller Records
Website: www.smotheredband.com
Band
Stoffe Eriksson: vocals, rhythm guitars
Martin Norman: lead guitars
Tobias Arvidsson: bass
Viktor Eklund: drums

Tracklist
01. The ritual
02. Dead but dreaming
03. Sovereign
04. Re-animated
05. No one left to kill
06. The crawling chaos
07. Phlegethon
08. Madness take me
09. Green river anthem
10. The inevitable end

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