Bloodbath: "Grand Morbid Funereal

This Swedish death metal band is a super group of sorts. Most of the members are from two bands that are no longer playing metal Opeth and Katatonia. I think my feelings about Katatonia are pretty well known on this site, after all we even interviewed their drummer. Opeth however...well lets say I couldn't get through the album in order to review it. So taking the sum of it's parts into consideration  and adding Paradise Lost vocalist into the equation, the result are surprisingly pretty straight forward. I'm not sure when the last time was that listened to Paradise Lost, I'm guessing the 90's. So  I really only Holmes from when the band made the awkward transition over into clean vocals. He is relativly convincing here.

"Total Death Exhumed" is the first song that really catches my attention. It has some catchy riffage. The intro to "Anne" really sounds like Morbid Angel. Which is not a bad thing. It means there has to be a heavy hook in the mix somewhere. It goes without saying this album is well played. The last time I caught these guys Akerfeldt was still growling for them. It never hit me that Jonas was playing bass for them. He is pretty buried in the mix. For the drummer to be a member of Opeth I expect a little more bombast and flash from him, but it's the guitar that dominates this album. They don't have your typical Swedish sound as this does not sound like Dissection or At the Gates.

They take a doomier turn on "Church of Vasitas". The crunch only last for so long until it takes an even deeper grind. The vocal accents on this one are pretty grime spewing. Though the rest of the album is very big and sparkling in it's production, which you would expect given the status of the members. I remember wondering when I saw Nick was singing for them, if this was going to come with a goth metal sound, but that is pretty minimal. "Famine of God's Word" continues to beat you with old school Morbid Angel style death metal. What is interesting is that most younger bands who take influence from Morbid Angel want to sound like Altars of Madness era, where as the veterans have more of a "Covenant" thing going on here. However neither guitarist is really much of a shredder. The stabs at it that they do take on songs like  "Mental Abortion" is  pretty effective for a dynamic shift. Other some of the beats are really straight forward. the punches in the chorus make up for this in "Mental Abortion and other spot in the album.. They do lean on that very punk snare beat, that Metallica made popular on Kill "Em All.

One of the album's hardest hitting songs is "Beyond cremation" that almost has a black metal feel to it. This is also one of the first songs the drummer gets to cut loose on. Normally for this sort of thing the drummer is really in the spot light, you would think more so as the verse riff has a tinge of Slayer to it. "His Infernal Necropsy" has to darken things up with a title like that. The Morbid Angel returns on this song. The lyrics for this album seem like the same horror movie like take on the occult. The band does go ape shit from the onset of "Unite in Pain" before locking into one of the albums best moments which is the Reign in Blood like chug that leads in.It sets the rest of the band up to punch a hook into your face. The straight ahead path they are on begins to wear on me by the times the blast beats of "My Torturer" kick up. When it slows down into the solo it's more tolerable.

The title track that closes the album out is a pretty massive chug. The robotic effects on the vocals are pretty cool. I thin if they had pulls more of these kind of tricks out of there sleeves the album would have have more dynamic scope. Some of the gothy samples go down on this one creating a very "Where the Slime Live" type of feeling when the rest of the band kicks in. Overall pretty meat and potatoes, if you are a fan of the band then don't fear, Nick is well behaved and leaves the goth at home. I'll give it a 7.5 as it could stand to be a little more adventurous considering this is the Swedish Metal cream of the crop. Fans of the band go ahead and tack on another point.


7.7

Wisdom of Crowds

This project is being called Bruce Soord with Jonas Renkse on iTunes and it might even be the officially name but I'm referring to it as Wisdom of Crowds, it sounds better .  Bruce from Pineapple Theif is the song writer and multi-instrumentalist on this thing, Jonas just sings and he does so very much in the similar fashion to what he does in Katatonia. I see this album as his Puscifer. Its very electronic based sometimes reminding me of Dredg's "Catch Without Arms" album, There are some real guitars layered over the programmed beats and synths.

Sometimes the songs makes them sound to happy for Jonas to be layered atop them, but once you get used to it. There is an interesting dynamic juxtaposition. There is a very 90's alternative sound to the opener " Pleasure", in the sense there is more of a sense of groove and melody , almost Everything But the Girl or Garbage but in a more rock direction. Guitars sonically power the second half of the song, though not in a metal sense.

The title track is what reminds me most of the Dredg album, as you can feel the California sun in it's grooves, this is strange since they hail from Northern Europe and I don't normally equate the almost goth Jonas with sunshine, so this is where the pairing feels the weirdest, but this is still a good song.    

"Radio Star". has very commercial lyrics and for some reason reminds me of Peter Gabriel. It backs off on the chorus and reminds me of the song "Praise You" by Fat Boy Slim, yes you did just read me reference that."Frozen North" works for me in keeping the dancey electronic feel but with some moments that rock. The plaintive approach to melodies that is one of Jonas' signatures worked well on this chorus  though some times hi voice sounds very naked with out the use of certain harmonies

There is a Depeche Mode vibe to "the Light" even when the harder electronic elements bridge the song. His voices sounds much more suited over this though the melody seems less melancholy than what we are use to and he is forced into using a little more conventional phrasing.. Musically I like where this goes and the guitar work is pretty close to perfect.

This album really has some excellent songwriting to win me over, considering how it's not a dark album by any means. Its a rainy afternoon while the suns out. "Stacked Naked" has some Pink Floyd elements to it, even though the fuzzed out tremolo picked guitar at the choral crescendo ass a little intensity.

By " Pretend " I find I'm ready for the pace to pace up out of the balladry. The programming here is almost acid jazz like in it's simplicity.Things pick up with the closer "The Centre of Gravity"  which moves its groove onto a European dance floor the way some of Placebo's more electronic efforts might.

The solid songwriting it what keeps my attention and draws me back for further listening, as well as some of the curiosity in regards to some of these melodies lay on the outskirts of what we normally here from Jonas. Is this his best singing to date? No, but it is something we haven't heard from him before and to his credit Bruce Soord has crafted some excellent back drops for it to sit against.  I'll give this an 8 as it sounds somewhat dated and there are some weird generic commercial grooves here that sound like drum presets.  

6.6