BLOODBATH
Survival Of The Sickest (Napalm)
Swedish supergroup Bloodbath play pure old-school death metal – and it’s refreshing. Survival Of The Sickest, the band’s sixth studio album, is everything you’d expect from such accomplished musicians – burning guitar riffs, heavy basslines, battering drums – and new frontman Nick Holmes (ex-Paradise Lost) delivers an effortless vocal performance.
The album begins with a bang not a whimper, the shrieking guitars of Zombie Inferno setting the scene for the gore that follows. Carved is a head-bopping song about disembowelment, Tales Of Melting Flesh is a creepy and brutal fairy tale, and album finale No God Before Me has a sinister church choir feel.
Death metal has morphed over the years and by today’s standards Survival Of The Sickest is almost soft rock, but, unlike many of the newer offerings there’s nothing forced or grating here – Bloodbath know what they’re doing and they do it unsettlingly well.
words LYNDA NASH
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