originally written by Chris McDonald
Blood Mortized is a death metal band from Sweden. They play music highly reminiscent of Swedish DM legends like Dismember and Entombed in both sound and songwriting. Their lineup features former members of many long running Swedish death metal bands, including Malfeitor, Amon Amarth, and Crypt of Kerberos. All told, this might be the most Swedish release you’ll hear this year.
And honestly, there’s really not much more that needs to be said about this three-song EP. The guitars and bass are played with the requisite buzzsaw distortion, there’s no blastbeats, and the vocals are delivered in a throaty roar. Riffs run the gamut from thrash / d-beat-driven tremolo affairs to chunky grooves and the occasional epic slowdown topped with a lead guitar melody. The last song ends with a mix of tribal drums and chants that’s pretty damn cool. Production is very modern but still slightly dirty, and the sound and mood in general strikes that satisfying balance between old-school and contemporary that’s all the rage these days.
Bestial is a competent exercise in this well-worn style, but nothing more. The riffs are enjoyable, but there’s nothing here that will stick with you for very long. And as it feels like there’s been about a hundred albums released in this vein in the last three years, this isn’t going to fulfill some stylistic void that’s existing in the listening habits of most death metal fans. I’ll also say that releasing such a straightforward brand of music in fourteen-minute EP form seems a bit pointless; it’s not as if our attention span would drift with a thirty-five minute album of this stuff.
At the end of the day, I can’t really recommend anyone drop cash on this EP when there’s better and more substantial examples of this genre out there, but this might be a band to watch in the future if you can’t get enough of the Swe-death.
