A few weeks back, I covered the other half of Dark Descent’s recent two-fer of almost-forgotten Swedish death metal discographies, Toxaemia’s Buried To Rise. Not to re-hash my past work (especially since it’s not long past), but to summarize: that comp was and is a splendid introduction to a band that flew under the radar back in the Golden Days of the fledgling Stockholm scene. And while that compilation was good, this one is better, in all respects. Whereas Toxaemia had more in common with the American sound, a bit more downtuned darkness than buzzsaw Sunlight, Uncanny falls more directly in line with the Entombeds, Dismembers and Graves. And though they never achieved the same level of notoriety as those bands, Uncanny crafted one fine record in 1994’s Splenium For Nyktophobia before splitting up and moving on. Post-Uncanny, guitarist Fredrik Norrman spent thirteen years in death/doom legends Katatonia (and most recently, he turned up in October Tide), while drummer Kennet Englund did a stint in long-running death metallers Centinex and also in Interment.
Uncanny’s sole full-length comprises the first of these two discs, with the second one made up of two earlier demos, 1991’s Transportation To The Uncanny and 1992’s Nyktalgia, plus the Uncanny side of the 1994 split with Ancient Rites. Splenium is mostly straight-ahead Swedeath, but Uncanny wasn’t afraid to throw a few abrupt turns in the mix – instrumental track “Timeless” sports fleeting keys and some dissonant arpeggios that are doubled by an acoustic guitar for extra shimmering effect. “Enkelbiljetten” is a cover of punk act G-ANX, taking Splenium briefly into grindcore with its gnarly bass tone and blastbeats, while late entry “Lepra” switches gears into full-on industrial metal, before the title track closes Splenium on an electro-symphonic note. Of those curious asides, “Timeless” works, and the G-ANX cover is certainly welcome (that band is underrated), but “Lepra” stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. And placing the synthesizer-heavy symphonic track at the end is at least a reversal of the formula employed by roughly 90% of death metal discs at the time, even if it makes that track’s pompous scope more of an afterthought. But even with their willingness to break tradition, Uncanny is best when they don’t – between the sidesteps, it’s those tracks in the middle that really count, comprised as the are of tight and crushing death with the fuzzy buzzsaw tone that makes Swedeath sweet.
As one would imagine, the Splenium material sounds more professional and polished than what preceded it – it undoubtedly benefited from a bigger budget. Still, there’s diamonds to be found in the demos and split material, for certain – only a few of the tracks from those earlier releases made the eventual album cut (“Soul Incest,” “Brain Access,” and “Tales From The Tomb”), while three others are repeated between the two demos and the Ancient Rites offering (“Ceased From Reality,” “Profligacy Of Power,” and the awesomely titled “Why My Intestines?”). Sonically, the demos are rawer, but still very listenable – like Splenium, Nyktalgia was engineered by the ever-reliable Dan Swano, while Transportation was recorded in the famed Sunlight Studios. Again, the band’s tendency to experiment is in full display – “Why My Intestines?” features a brief moment of arpeggiated acoustic riffing that’s rapidly consumed by the death metal from whence it came, and the later version of the same song sports some phase-shifted vocal moments. Uncanny repeats their closing symphonic title track trick with “Nyktalgia,” a one-minute mash-up of synth violins, droning organs, and timpanis that’s more succinct than “Splenium For Nyktophobia,” if equally as pointless when placed at the record’s end. (Though it occupies a middle slot on MCMXCI – MCMXCIV’s Disc Two, “Nyktalgia” originally closed its eponymous demo.) And again, while the experiments mostly work, the band remains at their best when they stick to the standard stuff: The also awesomely titled “The Porno Flute” rides a stuttering groove for two minutes of fuzzed-out death goodness, while “Ceased From Reality” alternates between blast-heavy pounding and the kind of double-kick-driven half-time breaks that propel circle pits into frenzies, a highlight in both its versions, from Nyktalgia and the split with Ancient Rites.
As I’ve mentioned countless times, I love discography collections, and I love Swedish death metal, so this record is a total no-brainer for me. MCMXCI – MCMXCIV is one-stop shopping for the complete recorded works of a talented and unsung band. Granted, Uncanny wasn’t quite on the level of Dismember or Entombed, but they were more fully fleshed-out and just simply better than Toxaemia. The tunes on these two discs prove that Uncanny is a more-than-worthy investment for fans of the old school, and MCMXCI – MCMXCIV is unquestionably a mandatory listen for any and all scholars of the Swedish scene.
