BLOODBATH - Breeding Death (2000)

The Eleventh: Brutality Comes Through Simplicity

I hadn’t any expectations concerning musical offer of the group. Or better to write: the Supergroup. Well, I just bought this title as a loyal fan of Dan Swanö since the first sounds of “Dawn of Dreams” back in 1992. As to Bloodbath crew Dan has been completed by Mikael Åkerfeldt,  Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse. Sounds promising? Yep, exactly. As the booklet informs, the main musicians goal was to bring back the old Swedish metal, to pay a tribute to the old school scene reigning the late eighties and the first half of the nineties. And this fact I cannot strive with. But from the very beginning. Well, the recording process took tens hours only, after a laconic phrase ‘let’s play something in the vein of the ancient death metal’. Beer cans have been opened, Dismember’s demos filled the air. It started: two songs were born off-hand and then recorded and mixed by Dan. Unfortunately he lost it somehow, however one Mikael’s tape with this stuff survived. Guys decided to re-record it with the third song called “Furnace Funeral”. All seemed to be just a big league, but the stuff landed on Century Media’s desk at last…    

  

Three songs and thirteen minutes. To put briefly: “Breeding Death” offers a fascinating trip to the times I am able to mind about. Maybe I didn’t bow down because of unexpected genius or what, yet the sounds stimulated my blood to run really faster, inducing tissues to live. To live? Good paradox, isn’t it? Just a fast glance on lyrical themes: burning the living ones, urine consumption or zombie feasting on cadavers. So, lyrically nothing new, musically, as the band stated, either. Luckily! The production side which is a Dan’s realm, is simply great. Not accidental, but with obvious well-known touch, giving a place for Renske’s crushing bass. And it is absolutely impossible to choose the song leader. For sure the ending aforementioned killer “Furnace Funeral” is like a repugnant brother of the title Entombed’s track from the debut album. I mean, this mesmerizing slow-down at 3:37 – 4:37, what a highlight! Tempo changing, morbid catchy parts, Mikael growlings and backing vocals of the rest, all the tracks spit the best to my face. Music flows smoothly, spatially, despite of its infectious charm, being an evidence it’s possible thing to ladle from something once invented and translate it on own creativity. That’s how it works in the case of Bloodbath. Pure, unpolluted Swedish old death.

Even if it lasts thirteen bloody minutes barely, even if I know “Breeding Death” by heart, I listen to it very often. What is more, this item is the best in band discography. And what about their intentions, possible calculations to make a success? Simply I don’t care as long as I get such a good slab with my beloved music.         

 

94/100

-Tlacaxipehualiztli 

 

(written in January, 2016)