Death is June - Filth : "Time to Rot"

This Swedish death metal band shuns the common conceptions of Swedish death metal, following either the path laid out by Entombed or being more of a melo-death shred fest. The guitar tone is dense, which is about all it owes to Entombed. The low, almost gurgle vocals and deliberate grooves put them in a zipcode closer to old Obituary. The drummer is very deliberate, which is one of the band's strengths, as it never just sounds like they are rushing to get to the end of the song. They might have a dreadful lumber, but are not death doom, having more in common with "Leprosy" era Death or Incantation. 

By the title track, it's clear the vocals are more of an obligatory layer, as they recreate almost the same mood they did on the first song. If you listen to this album at a lower volume, the vocals almsot do not register more than just being a low frequency. When they do pick up the pace here it just up to moshing speed rather than hyper aggressive overdrive. "Flesh Dress' is a great song title, but you will never understand the lyrics here, so it's a moot point. Perhaps even more pointless as they crank things up into an angrier blast. 

"Live in Agony Die in Pain" crashes to life with an angrier blast than what we have heard from them previously in the album. It finds its groove after the first minute, invoking a sense of early death metal where the genre spawned from thrash. They employ Slayer-inspired riffing as things unfold. The growls are more of an afterthought at this point in the album. Heading into the final two minutes of the song, there is a lumber that would have more in common with death doom than the pace they started the song with. By the last minute of the song, speeding things back up feels like lazy songwriting. 

"Decrepit Womb" opens with a clean guitar tone for the first minute. They do not pour on the speed, which is smart, as a little goes a long way.  They hit a pretty solid groove before pouring on the more blasting speed for a few measures. The last song is your typical barrage of tremolo-picked guitar that is gritty enough and but feels rushed before they hit you with more feeling and purpose. They do lock into a solid chug before going into your typical Morbid Angel-like chaotic guitar solo. I'll give this album an 8, it's dark and gritty, though aside from some of the cool flourishes of atmosphere, does not take a ton of chances, however,r they do care about songwriting rather than just being heavy,y which puts them ahead of the pack. This album drops July 18th. 

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