Click click.....BOOM! And we're off on a wild and crunchy death rollercoaster courtesy of world renowned Swedish death metal merchants, DISMEMBER. Check it out: "Visions of death and murder, ravaged figures screaming in pain, people dead and buried". Sound like quality death metal? You bet it is. DISMEMBER always followed the formula that I feel is so important for this type of music -- they try to take your head off with every song. Matti Karki's growls and David Blomqvist's blasting riffage knew few contemporaries back in the early 1990s, and sounds quite bloodthirsty today on "Where Ironcrosses Grow".

A couple of tracks on this release show off a surprisingly melodic edge, particularly "Tragedy of the Faithful", which sports a chord progression that enters very close to NOCTURNAL RITES territory for my ears. No complaints on this end. Overall the band is at its best when the tachometer is buried at maximum speed, i.e. "Forged With Hate". But for some reason the slower, mid-paced riffs in tracks like "Children of the Cross" don't melt my face off the way I remember classics from their 1991 killer "Like An Everflowing Stream" album. I'm not sure whether it's the overall production or what, but the E-chug is missing some teeth on some of this stuff. But 'nuff of my nitpicking. This is a great album if you like lots of blood sport in your metal. Lethal. Brutal. Satisfying. Buy. Smile.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.dismember.se

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