Info
- Band(s): Deathswarm
- Label(s): Chaos Records
- Release Format(s): CD
- Release Year: 2019
- Review Date: March 8, 2019
Remember the days when Death Metal bands like Bolt Thrower, Benediction and Suffocation ruled upon the earth, wreaking much havoc and disorder and there was much celebration, and everything was how it should be. With this time in mind, fast track to now and I give you Swedish death metallers Deathswarm and their debut album “Shadowlands of Darkness”
This album truly pays tribute to everything old school Death Metal should be, oh so heavy and monstrous, and all fans of old school Death Metal really need to listen to this. When I say heavy, I don’t mean heavy like your grandma’s fruit cake or the weight of iridium, I’m telling you, that because I listened to this on headphones, I’m now 3 inches shorter. Now that’s fuckin heavy.
All 9 x tracks on this album bring chugging riffage and pounding chord changes which go from slow and brooding to frenzied and neck snapping intense lead breaks with ease. The vocals are guttural, sinister, and are spat out at such a virulent level that they seem to come straight from Mictian the Aztec God of Death and the Underworld himself. With the addition of feverish blast beats and the combination of pounding rhythms, every track seamlessly moves the listener to even greater apocalyptic depths.
This is the kind of music that demons play on their way to the surface to steal souls, and if you don’t believe me, listen to Track 3 “When Young Souls Are Dragged to Hell”, and see that even Deathswarm know it to be true, or, they were commissioned by the Underworld to create this album. Either way, we mere mortals are the lucky beneficiaries.
Production is right on the money and this further allows the band to set the scene of savagery, violence and mayhem through the whole album.
This is an exceptional debut album which takes the essence of the anger and violence of the 80’s death metal scene and has brought it kicking and screaming into 2019. It will be a soundtrack to your worst nightmares and will absolutely scare the crap out of the neighbours. Yay!!!!!! (Longstretch)
