Swedish Death Metal Night!!!!!!!!!!

At last.....at long, eternal last....the evil dwarves have unfurled the Scrolls of Doom, and once again commences Metal Night!!! With special guest Rick Reed and Thurl Foehammer of Collective Studios(for a few minutes while they looked at toys and movies).

Tonight, almost at random, we decided to delve into some Swedish Death Metal, that most brutal yet strangely melodic of metals. All the albums were kick ass and we had to make a hard choice tonight. Seagram's Seven Crown Whiskey helped us along. Seagram's is the new adult beverage of choice for Metal Night.

First album we listened to was At The Gates' Slaughter of the Soul, from 1994. This was deigned the weakest of the three albums, but only by a small margin. This album is brutal, fast, yet chocked with many Iron Maidenish melodicisms. It let's up only for a brief keyboard interlude. This album was big influence on Metalcore, but don't hold that against them.

Then came the night's motherfucker and winner by a small margin, Unleashed's 1992 opus Shadows In The Deep. This was one of the first death metal albums I ever owned. I still have it on cassette somewhere. This is a deep, dark, almost soothing album of Celtic Frost tinged riffery, and brutal, gutter belches from hell. It blasts away, yet never loses it's groove. It was during this album Chris and I talked about 'loner metal', the tendency of metal bands to have that 'don't fuck with me i live by own rules, you posers' song, perhaps best exemplified by Metallica's 'Escape'. Unleashed contributed to this oeuvre with 'A Life Beyond':

Hear the silent whispers, all the talking heads and see all
their fake smiles
Protected by a wall of laws they hide - they dare not face me
Talking in circles to start confusion
(but empty words they fly through my mind)
With all their lies and prophecies they try - but they'll
never get me

...They'll never get me

With staring eyes they follow me
(it seems to be the peak of their lives)
I hate you all, why can't you fuckin' see - you cannot scare
me
Like an image passin' by I see it ends the day that I die
Until then I'll have powers left to fight - they'll never get
me

...They'll never get me

Fucking soul, man....broken English and all.

Next up, and coming in at a cunt hair's close second, Entombed's Clandestine. Another Death Metal classic. We were bowled over by this. Just as brutal as the day it was released back in 1991. Riff after classic riff disembowels you, turns your soul black with evil, and releases you but only after you beg. Sacrificing the sick atmosphere of their last album for pure brutality and solid musicianship. We barely survived the last three songs, and had to mellow out with some Yngwie and Dio.

Rick and Thurl wandered in sometime during the evening with Thurl'scousin Pickles, and we yapped about thrash metal for a while. But Rick and company were on a mission, and soon departed.

Thus concludes, motherfuckers. Thus concludes.