Alternate Histories

(Yes, that is Dan Seagrave's doing)


Crappy Thanksgiving, America. As much as I would have liked to be current with Sweden's Death Metal explosion, I wasn't even a year old when Nihilist put out the Drowned demo. I've spent a lot of time gazing back and I have (and still do, typically) operate under a lot of safe assumptions/general understandings about certain times and certain places and how extreme metal evolved in these categories (earlier -- later, Stockholm -- Gothenburg, Sunlight -- Abyss, for some examples).

Until a few days ago I did not know shit about Seance, who have been around since 1990 and who absolutely defy my expectations for Swede Death from that time. Part of me always assumed there would be exceptions to the rule and here you go. Musically speaking they've got more in common with Suffocation and Deicide than any Swedish contemporaries. I've so far listened to Forever Laid to Rest, which is what I've stuck at the bottom of the post. This came out in 1992 and it is very good. Again, something I didn't expect for this time. Check it!





Out of here. Maybe tomorrow you might consider driving to a mall to see the darkest side of humanity, fighting for tablets and 3-D TVs.

Reincarnage

The only relevant official link I could find was to their Myspace. If you like Forever Laid to Rest a lot, I guess you can shoot them a message, in case they still check theirs.

-W.F.

Not Bloodbath

It's beyond moot at this point: the best album of 2011 will most likely be Watch the Throne. In light of that, I'll try to divvy what genuine enthusiasm I have left for things that don't feature Jay-Z AND Kanye West rapping together for a whole album and direct that towards Sweden's best national export, Death Metal.



Torture Division is Jorgen Sandstrom, the best vocalist ever to grave Grace; I mean "grace Grave" and two other guys (the "other" bald guy with a goatee and long-hair good-drummer, aka "That guy from Vomitory") best known(?) from The Project Hate whatever-the-fuck, who I've never cared to check out but could very well be great, only instead of playing maybe-good Industrial+Death, they kick out raw, punkish Death Metal, which kicks ass.

"Great," you might be thinking, but there is more. Torture Division, as an enterprise is largely free. Not "free" as in "I've got a few minutes to spare, I'm going to hit the blogs and see what sounds worth downloading" but "free" as in "take our music, please." Yes. Torture Division pumps out songs, plays select shows and prints small runs of merch and, utilizing the revenue generated therein, records more demos. Voila! And while "demo" has the connotation of poorer quality to some (unless if you're weened on black metal), all the demos are mixed by none other than the super-producer and ultra-prolific Dan Swano (ex-everything), so they sound great.

I will say that, some of the lyrical content is insanely misogynistic. And while that comes with the territory and I don't make any excuses. This is something I feel conflicted about often. If you take my stance on it and view as objectively as art representing all aspects of life, good or bad, as art does not and should not always depict only things we agree with (because where's the conflict in that? Where's the drama?), then you will be alright. Sorry, that last sentence has a lot of clauses. Or, you can pass on it.

I'm dead serious about Patriarchy and if you feel the same way, you may skip this altogether or not even listen to Death Metal at all, who knows?

Download their music directly from their site. Read around, too. It's entertaining. Link below.

Rrrrock