Intricate, violent and permeated by northern lights in the form of Classical and Romantic pre-Gothenburg melodic influences, the debut album of Dismember, arguably the master of Stockholm death metal scene, took the world by storm and was instantly imitated by many a musical wanderlusting soul breathing the ether of the early 90′s. As an eagle flying through a blizzard, consonant themes interact in a matrix of suggestion while the guttural vocals emphasize the active, garage born hardcore ethic in electrifying the music with moments of relentless harshness and distortion to offset the aching beauty of the severed spinal cord strings of David Blomqvist’s and Robert Sennebäck’s threatening and archaic phrasing. The powerful alienated wails brought by the “whammy wizard” Nicke of Entombed bear mention as a non-trivial element in this journey of gloomy souls from the Candlemass-meets-Slayer traditionalism of “Dismembered” to the outrageous moshpit destroying hysteria of “Skin Her Alive”, which matches every proto death metal moment of “Reign in Blood” or “Master” in directness. What makes Dismember‘s debut one of the most elusive, underestimated and permanent death metal albums from the Nordic kingdoms is their uncanny ability to match the beauty of solemn dirges with the intoxicated riots of Stockholm’s torn-jeans-and-baseball-caps Tunnelbana punks, mostly realized in troubling and uncomfortable juxtapositions, such that often make for more meaningful art than perfectly resolved and consistent style and aesthetics.
Filed under: Death Metal Album of the Week — Tags: Classical, Death Metal, Hardcore, Melodic Death Metal, Swedish Death Metal — Devamitra @ June 15, 2010 15:25 — Comments (5)
Great album and review! This album took me a while to get into back when i first got it, in retrospect i have no idea why.
A wonderful sense of melody, intent and playfulness!
Comment by TheWaters — June 16, 2010 @ 01:45
One of the greatest of all time. I’ve spun my copy into dust!
Comment by mark — June 16, 2010 @ 03:17
[...] centre for Death Metal; the latter being associated with the nobley barbaric masterpieces of Dismember, Therion, Necrophobic and their Sunlight Studio-powered comrades, while on the opposite coast, the [...]
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[...] in the vein of the ‘trademark Swedish buzzsaw sound’, which has been duly immortalized by Dismember, Entombed, et al. To convey their brand of cold and slimy death metal, Wombbath instead employed a [...]
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[...] are nouveau death metallers Mutant Supremacy, who occupy a peculiar nexus in between Monstrosity, Dismember, and Infester — thus setting them apart from the archetypal NYDM style as well. Seemingly [...]
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