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Toxaemia: Buried to rise

28/02/11 || Khlysty

Phewwwww! Now, THAT was an earful! “Buried to Rise” is a double entendre, containing Toxaemia’s omnibus from 1990 to 1991 in two different versions. On the first CD, the music has been given the once-over by none other than the unstoppable Dan Swanö, while the second one contains the songs as they were released, back in the early ‘90s, when death metal reigned supreme and Sweden was the greatest bastion of all things death and disgusting. See, Toxaemia might have never managed to achieve the notoriety and fame of, say, Entombed, Grave or Dismember, but as one of the bands that probably helped define what today is considered as the “classic swedeath sound”, their importance is unquestionable.

“Buried to Rise” contains the totality of recorded material the band put out from its inception back in 1990 until its split in 1991, that is, the two demos “Kaleidoscopic Lunacy” (1990) and “Buried to Rot” (1991), the “Beyond the Realm” E.P. (1990), plus some unreleased songs and whatnot. These coming from a certain age and representing the exact mentality of said age, one can easily say that Toxaemia is your basic, really early Swedish death metal band: the songs are based around easily-distinguishable riffs, there are quite a few speeding-ups and slowing-downs in each song, the leads are appropriately yucky and chaotic and the vocals are as brutal as one can expect. This is as textbook-early-swedeath as it gets: nothing too fancy or flashy, just music intended to pulverize bones and liquefy eardrums and brains.

As I said before, Toxaemia is not as high-flying as the true monsters that defined the swedeath sound; this doesn’t mean, though, that their music is just a footnote. ‘Cause it’s not: actually, it’s pretty well-defined, sometimes catchy and groovy, always brutal and enjoyable. I just think that it lacks this certain “something” that made the giants of swedeath so distinguished and distinguishable: this certain “spark” that gave Entombed or Grave their status as purveyors of some of the best death metal ever. Toxaemia just seem to lack this, eh, “something” and, to my ears at least, their music’s never elevated to the heights of “Into The Grave” or “Clandestine”. Not bad, mind you, but also nothing genre-defining.

The difference between the two CD’s of “Buried to Rise” lies in sound. Dan Swanö’s remix/remaster job gives the songs more snap and presence, while the original versions obviously lack in that department. Also, the earlier versions display some problems as far as the technical prowess of the band is concerned: especially in the demo songs, I think that I detect a certain sloppiness in execution, probably due to the band’s desire to zero-in on brutality, instead of technicality. No matter, though. For the aficionados of stone-age swedeath, “Buried to Rise” will be a five-course meal to be consumed with love and reverence and for the rest of us it’s a nice document of Sweden’s then-nascent dive into brutality. Good stuff, indeed.

7,5

Information
Released: 2010
Label: Dark Descent Records
Website: Toxaemia MySpace
Band
Stevo Bolgakoff: vocals, guitar
Pontus Cervin: bass
Emil Norrman: drums

Tracklist on both CD’s
01. Terminated Violence
02. Dark Wisdom
03. Crematorium (1989 version)
04. Evil Rage
05. Force of Plague
06. Beyond the Realm
07. Another Lie, Another Death
08. Who Dies
09. Expired Christianity
10. The Acquisition
11. World Graveyard
12. Tragedies Through Centuries
13. Hate Within
14. The Beginning of the End
15. Buried to Rot
16. Crematorium (1991 version)
17. Kaleidoscopic Lunacy
18. Immolation of Justice

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