### Total Terror: Total terror

#### 11/03/10 || Khlysty

While it has become impossible for me to try and follow in detail the interesting and woolly career of Mr. Dan Swanö – who, within a period of, what?, fifteen years?, has associated himself with more bands, projects, styles and genres that is possible for one to assimilate, even if one tries…-, I can definitely say that Total Terror is a curveball, even for someone who has displayed the uncanny ease of jumping from all-out death metal to prog-goth metal, to avant in a blink of an eye.

See, Total Terror sees Swanö going all Nausea or Discharge, offering to the great unwashed 27 excursions into crusty hardcore mania. The song lengths range from 20 seconds to two-and-a-half minutes, tops, and reek of violence, sweat, nihilism, lotsa beer and crazy humor (this one is a supposition, since all lyrics are in Swedish and I don’t understand word one of them…), while the songwriting and playing displays a kind of total abandon that I don’t think that it can be found anywhere else in Dan’s long and generally lauded career.

Of course, Total Terror’s not something new in Dan’s oeuvre. Actually, the band (a trio with Dan on vocals and guitar, Drette on bass and backing vocals and Benny Larsson on drums, alla them members of Edge Of Sanity, back then) was formed back in 1993 and the tracks were laid on tape in 1994, before the project was abandoned and Swanö moved to more death metal pastures. Come 2008, Dan was cleaning up the vaults, came upon the master tapes of Total Terror, listened to them, said “what the helvete!”, cleaned up the sound as much as humanly possible, mixed the damned thing and unleashed it to the unsuspecting public.

So, is it any good? Oh, sure. The band goes for extreme velocity, the guitars have an absolutely filthy sound, the bass is a grungy beast lurking in the background, the drumming is exquisitely sloppy and the vocals consist mainly of a pissed-off shout-scream-growl, totally perfect for the kind of music contained here. The production is thick and dirty and everything blurs past the listener’s ears, slashing and pulverizing in its path. 27 songs in 33 minutes tell you a lot of what you need to know about the music and if you’re smart, you go for it with a smile on yer mug and an alcoholic beverage in your hand. This is crust/hardcore punk done as it should be, okay? So, go listen to it and fuck off my back already…

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Vic Records
- Website: Total Terror MySpace
- Band
- Dan Swanö: vocals, guitar
- Andreas “Drette” Axelson: bass, backing vocals
- Benny Larsson: drums, backing vocals

- Tracklist
- 01. Packad & Klar
- 02. Diska
- 03. Snobb
- 04. Mangel
- 05. Ar Det Så Det Ska Va?
- 06. Född Till Ett Liv I En Lögn
- 07. Muskler
- 08. Av Alla Sedlar Jag Har Fått
- 09. Fotbollspappan
- 10. Terror-Tore
- 11. Skitig
- 12. Vem Fan Tror Du Att Du Är?
- 13. Alkoholiserad
- 14. Tillåt Mig Spy
- 15. Destination U.S.A.
- 16. Bakfull
- 17. Vad Har Du I Skallen, Svin?
- 18. Inspärrad
- 19. Guds Kontonummer
- 20. Trendsvin
- 21. Mitt Liv Blir Min Död
- 22. Dö Då Din Jävel
- 23. Det Finns En Gräns
- 24. Era Sinnesjuka Svin
- 25. Du Borde Spärras In
- 26. Aggressiv
- 27. Det Finns Inte Ord