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The Resistance (SWE): Scars

31/08/13 || Ironpants

“Fire in the bung hole!!!”

Well, here it is. The full debut album from The Resistance (Swe). Yes, they have added the (Swe) after their moniker to avoid confusion with all the other hip hop/soul/rock bands with the same moniker. As you might remember, I stubbed their EP “Rise from treason” a while ago, and I felt a little fooled from their somewhat “lame” performance. I have learned later, that they actually had to scrap all the material because it didn’t fit their original agenda. Well “Sometimes you have to flush your unwanted baby down the toilet” as they say, and apparently “The Resistance” have learned to do that.

If that’s the case, “Scars”, would be a fucken good album right? As I gave the EP a 7,5 in the stub, the album should be around 9 or something? Is it then? Well, we’ll see in a while.

I have hold on to this sucker for a while, but that have turned out to be in their favor. The first track, “Clearing the slate” (Cleaning the taint?), is a fire cracker, and I thought at once that it would carry on right through the album, of course that’s not the case, cause it’s that kind of song that stand out and will get your attention, all true to ancient traditions. So the rest of the songs, gave me sort of “cold feet”, I wanted higher energy. But, when the dust clears and you get the chance to listen to the album with another state of mind, you realize that it is pretty ok.

Through the main portion of the album they perform a sort of “Best of Sweden” sound and are mixing and matching between the Gothenburg tradition and Sunlight tradition. And that is ok, I guess, why not pick the boogers from the drive-through meal so to speak. It’s a nice blend of Entombed/Dismember riffing, throwing in a few At the Gates/The Haunted references, and lastly sprinkle it with a lot of hardcore vibe on top of that.

The guitar sound has that gritty, dirty Swedish distortion, the drums have a fat natural sound, and Marco’s singing is as fierce as always. That man must have been raised by a pack of rabid dobermans, and he is angry as hell…all the time. He’s a fucken good singer, and raises the value quite a bit with his full on anger.

But there is something with the sound picture that isn’t really great, and it took me a while to figure it out. I think it’s the drums? Even if Chris Barkensjö is a very potent drummer and delivers a steady, energetic feel to the album, the sound of the kit sounds… misplaced. They sound perfect “drum wise”, but I don’t like them together with the rest of the sound. I don’t know, it is one of those reference points you have to decide for yourselves.

To summarize: You get what you want here. Straight out of the box good classic Swedish death metal with some extra spice from some Gothenburg harmonies here and there. And that’s it really, and I was expecting something more. This is one of those “hard-to-grade” albums for me, it’s nothing really wrong with it, but it is nothing really über-great either. A solid death metal release, but nothing fancy. As Marco says in the end of “Expand or expire”… “Awww, Fuck you!!”

Information
Released: 2013
Label: earMUSIC
Website: The Resistance Facebook
Band
Marco Aro: vocals
Glenn Ljungström: guitars
Jesper Strömblad: guitars
Claudio Oyarzo: bass
Christofer Barkensjö: drums

Tracklist
01. Clearing the slate
02. Your demise
03. To the death
04. Expand or expire
05. Imperfected
06. I bend – You break
07. The serpent king
08. Eye for an eye
09. My madness
10. Warmonger
11. Scars
12. (I will) Die alone

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