Reviews
Insision: Revealed and worshipped
25/03/09 || The Duff
Insision, baby! I will always give mad props to this band – salad-tossing props; a Swedish death metal band that plays American death metal, they’ve released one classic disc of brutal death metal, and two great discs of catchier, still quite heavy death metal – this band is all about no-bullshit death metal. Like your death metal? Go to Insision, ‘cos they play with a soul that has been absent in death metal’s most recent developments that has become too technicality-focused; they live and breathe this shit like many throwback bands (like, for example, early Bloodbath) that just want a return to the glory days, the days when a riff was a riff and not an anal violation in 13/16 time with no groove – you need groove when it comes to anal violation.
As mentioned, these guys play American death metal, despite being from Sweden. Major influences therefore include Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation and apparently Deicide, although I can’t vouch for that as I’m not so keen on Glenda’s fronted band. The production is muggy, much like Morbid Angel’s “Domination”, but I can’t say I have a preference when the music doesn’t need too much clarity to be deciphered – so long as a triplet riff still sounds like a triplet riff, I’m a happy bunny.
This shit gets fast, courtesy of either new drummer Marcus Johansson or same drummer from the last one Thomas Daun – the band’s history of drummers is cloudy, as although Thomas Daun is credited in the booklet, it could be that someone else featured on “Revealed and worshipped” – I do remember that the band had to cancel the European tour for this album as the new drummer hadn’t learned all the tracks; what the fuck do I know? I will say that the drumming on here seems less assertive and less inventive than on “Beneath the folds of flesh”, comprising some confident fills and sound blasting talents, but not much of a desire to venture.
This is Insision’s catchiest effort, mixing heavy, accessible (to a degree), technical but not over-pushing it music with some awesome evil atmosphere, aided by Birath’s insanely guttural vocals – the guy sounds like he has a scarred larynx that seeps molten lava into the back of his throat. The whole album is a very strong affair, but it does develop more towards the end, I think the music becoming more interesting and written with less of a “been here, done that” presentiment as the tracks progress. “The foul smell of humans” is much like “Impamiiz graa” on “Beneath the folds of flesh”, an ode to “Dawn of the angry” off Morbid Angel’s “Domination”, the rest combining speed and sickening groove to awesome effect, just in no way like you haven’t heard before.
Despite this lack of innovation, and the fact that Insision seem to have squeezed out a tad too much for this disc, I still consider them unknown leaders of the current death metal scene – this comes highly recommended, as with everything else they’ve done.
8 Swedish death metal albums the American way out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2004
- Label: Earache
- Website: www.insision.com
- Band
- Carl Birath: vocals
- Daniel Ekeroth: bass
- Thomas Daun: drums
- Toob Brynedhal: guitars
- Roger Tobias Johansson: guitars
- Tracklist
- 01. No belief
- 02. The imminent vision
- 03. We did not come to heal
- 04. Revealed and worshipped
- 05. The unrest
- 06. Grotesque plague mass
- 07. The foul smell of humans
- 08. In the gallows
- 09. The cleansing
- 10. Havoc
- 11. The ideas of revolution
