DISMEMBER - Death Metal (1997)

Trendkiller: Dismembering the Unfaithful Ones

„Death Metal”, the fourth album of Swedes from Dismember isn’t the metal slab which can dethrone their bestial and immortal debut “Like an Ever Flowing Stream”. Of course “Death Metal” isn’t bad stuff as well, but I have an impression that the album is named desperately a bit (I will explain it later). After two great efforts and third rather mediocre in my opinion “Massive Killing Capacity”, the band had to prove they were still active on the battlefield called death metal. 1997 is the year of releasing this album of Swedish metal and one thing is obvious: I can hear the same music, the same way of production, the same metal. Are there any changes? Maybe I have to write about mass of melody in song structures? Yes, melody in death metal… all right, don’t expect here In Flames dishwash, or commercial gothic sad guitar sighs, but there is one album I compare “Death Metal” with. Its name is “Slaughter of the Soul” released in 1995 by At the Gates. This album became some kind of determinant of a new wave in Swedish (melodic) death metal. And so as “Slaughter” is average, rather monotonous and just overrated stuff for me, here Dismember work stands proudly with flag of very good death performance. In two words – sound (of music) kills. It is really the essence of specific Swedish sound, nothing is changed from the infamous debut, just like Sunlight Studio, so everything is clear: mass of ‘dirt’ in guitars, down tuned bass, just hear it and know the basis of Swedish death metal. Ok, the production helped the band as always, but what Dismember did with their music?

Just like album title says, Swedes had to record a death metal slab. And I proudly declare to all concerned that the title doesn’t lie. To make this review easy, I divided all the tracks into three groups. The first one: there are direct, straight forward death metal tracks, some faster like “Trendkiller”, “When Hatred Killed the Light” or “Ceremonial Comedy”, some slower with mid-paced riffs: “Let the Napalm Rain”, “Killing Compassion”. Speaking frankly about these tunes I have to admit this is the weakest group on the album. However the weakest doesn’t mean the weak in general, although two songs are really bestial killer: “Trendkiller”, believe me, also in this case title says it all, and “Let the Napalm Rain” (better find a shelter!). The second group is much better, but it contains only two excellent shots. Yep, I wrote shots… in this case the better description should sound: excellent vises, because “Stillborn Ways” and “Mistweaver” are… doom songs! It seems I become insane and previous sentence looks nonsensically a bit. The first track is opened by bass intro, hard, heavy and very slow riffs, maybe there are minimal faster tunes in the middle, but for me it is like Candlemass started to play death metal; on the end quite long yet fine solo. With the second one the situation is the same, however some violin tunes opened the song. And I didn’t find here any speed, pure doom for me definitely.

All right, let’s jump into toxic fume of the last third group. And to put it briefly, the best one. These songs are fast (or mostly fast) with one distinguishing element: melody. Each child on the world knows that Dismember pleased the metal senses by original and not commonplace melodies (like “Override of the Overture”, “Dismembered”, “In Death’s Sleep”, “Dreaming in Red”). This album isn’t exception and the first song from the album “Of Fire” is just a affirmative proof of my words: memorable group of riffs and quasi-solo lead (repeated later two times) by Blomqvist, slow down in the middle with marching guitar and rhythm section with guitar lead divided into two parts. Really good work on the start. In the same vein: the third killer on the album “Misanthropic” (here I found some similarities to the second Dissection album due to catchy guitar structures), the fifth “Live for the Fear (Of Pain)” (weaker than the previous ones, it is simple track, good song for the “Slaughter…” of At the Gates) and the eight “Bred For War”, but here melodious tunes could be better. Ok, if somebody is good at math, then one song is missing. Damn it, this missing track is entitled “Silent Are the Watchers” and I consciously left it on the end. This is very controversial bloody thing. Why? Because these almost four minutes are very light (even un-heavy???) and the question coming from my heart is simple: do watchers fit to the entirety? The essence of the matter is obvious: this song is a real highlight in Dismember discography, even I found many no (!) death metal details, especially the heavy metal melodies which attack from the very first second. This opening guitar quasi-lead, which in fact softens the song, will be repeated later, but the best is yet to come. And I do not write about catchy riffs, but about excellent guitar moment and superb solo lead. Sounds eminently indeed! Just strip it of this specific sound and heavy metal band enters the stage. During first listenings to “Death Metal”, I considered “Silent Are the Watchers” as the best track. And nowadays I can write the same, so the answer sounds: this song perfectly fits to the remainder. Silent are the watchers? No! Loud are the listeners!

I wrote many words earlier about my feelings concerning the naming of this album. I know the late of the nineties wasn’t good for playing death metal, it was out of fashion, but I have to signalize one thing: the fourth effort of Dismember isn’t the best death metal release for sure and the title could be quite different. Look-over on the track list and everything becomes clear: TRENDKILLER! Great word yet short and straight forward for hard times! Dismember is very unique band, deeply rooted in the Swedish underground. By the way, look at their comrades: which band was able to play such a great stuff those days? There was either non existence or change of music style… So I have a big respect to them, they still keep the death metal flag, some releases are perfect, some only good, but in this case I am totally convinced I won’t be a witness of any change. I liked this album a lot.  

88/100

-Tlacaxipehualiztli

(previously written for Encyclopaedia Metallum, on September, 2011, now modified a bit)