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Class 6(66)
Bloodbath: Resurrection through carnage
15/08/11 || Smalley
Introduction
By the time this re-debut review of mine reaches all your grubby
little eyes, I’ll have left the staff precisely one year ago, after
foolishly coming to the conclusion that there was no more metal out
there I wanted to write about. Fortunately for me (but probably not for
you), I’ve been sharpening my writing skills and also discovering some
really good shit I had been ignorant of, of which, “Resurrection through
carnage” is included. Though it isn’t quite a decade-old yet, there is
no disputing that this one’s a motherfucken metal classic, and since
Inquisitor wrote a Class6 for the excellent
“ From Mars to Sirius
“ when it was barely old enough for 1st grade, I figured tackling an
album that’s one measly year away from the magic 10 would be acceptable.
However, before we get into the castrated nuts-and-bolts of this one, I have to warn you that “carnage” is basically a tribute album, specifically, a tribute to the classic Swedeath that groups like Grave, Dismember, Entombed (and etc.), pumped out during the early 90’s. And, not only is it a tribute album, it’s a tribute album by a “supergroup”, a venture that can often produce watered-down product. Even having members from Edge Of Sanity, Katatonia, and the mighty Opeth didn’t guarantee Bloodbath’s success, especially when you consider that “carnage” was their very first full-length together. However, by keeping a singular songwriting focus in mind, putting a new spin on that legendary Swedeath production, and creating an incredibly gory atmosphere, Bloodbath crafted an album for the fucken ages, one that mashes all former doubts about the project into a mushy flesh pile. Now, dive with me into the red goop and we’ll find out exactly why “carnage” kicks my ass so much.
Songwriting
8. Åkerfeldt & Dan Swanö successfully resisted the urge to get too ambitious with the songwriting, as do the Katatonia guys with their natural melancholy, instead, everyone just focuses on crafting catchy, traditional, brutal, up-tempo Swedeath, without even a hint of any other influences diluting the pure, evil death here. There’s really nothing prog-y or melodic here at all, just relatively-straightforward, mid-length songs, but they’re so heavy & irresistibly infectious, you won’t give a fuck.
Along with the expected up-tempo verses & catchy choruses, there’s just enough variation in the song intros, breakdowns, bridges, speed-ups, lead guitar flourishes, and other changes to keep things from ever being dull, and, though I’m not yet a Swedeath expert, nothing here sounds too derivative of those old albums to my ears. Extra kudos to the evil atmosphere they often create with the slower tempos, sinister lead guitar lines, and various sound effects.
While everything here isn’t quite a standout ala “Mass strangulation”, “Buried by the dead”, “Trail of insects”, etc., every other song is more than satisfactory. Well, some of the riffing on opener “Ways to the grave” drones slightly, and it does feel a bit loosely put together, but one minor disappointment out of ten more than is fine by me.
Production
9.5. Yes, a fucken 9.5 , because it’s the production on “carnage” that is the single element most responsible for the album’s success, IMO. You see, if Bloodbath had just transplanted the exact same guitar tone off “Left hand path”, and put it on here like it was still 1990 and Bart Simpson was still showing up on every grade schooler’s T-shirt, I almost certainly wouldn’t be inducting “carnage” into our classics section. Fortunately, what they did do was apply spiffy modern tech to that same rusty chainsaw sound, and turned it up to fucken eleven, resulting in a dirtier, thicker, crunchier production than on any of those old albums.
I do like how prominent Mikael’s growling is in the mix, and the uniquely fuzzy drum sound, surprisingly-audible bass, and lead guitar all sound fine to me, but it’s that updated rhythm guitar sound that makes “carnage” feel like a fresh, modern, legitimate Swedeath album in its own right, instead of the sad, pathetic pine for the old days it easily could have ended up as.
Guitars
8.5. The guitar work in Katatonia is just so different in nature that it’s nigh-impossible to compare Anders’ work there to his playing on “carnage”, but on its own, his riffs here are consistently groovy, brutal, and relentless, perfect for what Bloodbath set out to achieve. I particularly like that segmented, staccato riffing he’ll pump out sometimes. None of his lead work is great, but while there are no real major solos for him to show off on, the lead stuff here works better just as an accompaniment to what the riffing is doing, instead of trying to grab the spotlight for itself. This is a much more riffs-based album anyway, and Anders puts in uniformly good work on that front, so no complaints.
Vocals
9. We already knew from Opeth that Mikael’s an awesome growler, but even he adjusts his style to better suit “carnage”, completely dropping his clean vocals, and making his harsh stuff sound more… I dunno how to say it, “aggressive”, I guess. He sounds naturally abrasive, guttural, and demonic as hell here, with some awesome, ungodly roars, but he still retains his signature clarity, and the occasional use of vocal distortions only make him sound even more evil. The other members do occasionally chip in with back-up vocals, but they don’t stick out all that much in the mix, so Åkerfeldt’s really the main attraction on this front.
Bass
6.5. Though it’s so very, very easy to get distracted by that crunchy rhythm guitar, you actually can hear Renkse’s bass pretty decently if you bother to concentrate on it. Unfortunately, Renkse mostly seems to just mimic the rhythm guitar, and he doesn’t really carve his own niche here, so there won’t be much motivation for you to try focusing on him. No big deal though, his instrument never was meant to be a big deal on this one.
Drums
7. Dranö pulls off the occasional nice drum fill, or kicks his speed up into overdrive, but mostly, his drumming is very standard stuff. Not much more to say here besides that I like the drum sound sound, but I already went over that, din’t I?
Lyrics
8. Off “Buried by the dead”:
“Into death cast, a spiral of the past
Eclipse grips for my soul (get a chill every time Åkerfeldt sings that line!)
Torn from death’s bed, and buried by the dead
Their hands are white and cold!”
So, it’s exactly what you’d expect here, with vivid, gory, dark lyrics about death, murder, blood-bathing, bodily decay, darkness, and soul-torturing, with some catchy rhymes to boot. It isn’t exactly original writing all-around, but it is entertaining, and nothing else would really suit the musical mood of “carnage” anyway. Extra kudos go to the unexpectedly meta, Freddy Krueger-inspired lyrics on “The soulcollector”.
Cover art
8. It might seem a bit egotistical to slap your own mugs on a cover, but at least they drew ‘em up into scabby, rotting corpses instead of leaving their smooth, Swedish skin unblemished. I also like the Brady Bunch-style segmenting. It isn’t as memorable as a more imaginative cover would’ve been, but I still like it.
Logo
9. I love the color and those sharp, curved edges, and also the way it looks like it’s fucken dripping blood. Not the most legible logo in the world, but everything else about it kills.
Booklet
N/A. I think you know why by now. No apologies.
Overall and ending rant
I’m sure I’m just being a young and naive metalhead when I say this, but I have yet to hear another album that embodies METAL all-around more than “Resurrection through carnage”. It’s basically the purest distillation of the essence of evil DM I’ve heard, and will make you into a metal badass just from hearing it (or at least make you feel like one). You can’t call it super-original or high art or anything like that, but with an album this gloriously, unabashedly heavy ‘n evil, who really gives a shit?
So, I am hoping this review gets me back in GD’s semi-good graces, but whether you usually agree with my writing or not, “carnage” is a must-have-right-fucken-now for anyone who claims to love metal of the death persuasion, and you can take that straight to the fucken bank. The BLOOD bank.
- Information
- Released: 2002
- Label: Century Media Records
- Website: www.bloodbath.biz
- Band
- Mikael Åkerfeldt: vocals
- Dan Swanö: drums, back-up vocals
- Anders Nyström: guitars, back-up vocals
- Jonas Renkse: bass, back-up vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. Ways to the Grave
- 02. So You Die
- 03. Mass Strangulation
- 04. Death Delirium
- 05. Buried by the Dead
- 06. The Soulcollector
- 07. Bathe in Blood
- 08. Trail of Insects
- 09. Like Fire
- 10. Cry My Name
