Out of all the sub-genres of metal, there is one which I will always return to over all others. That, my friends, is the horrible slime-coated buzzsaw attack of the ‘Stockholm sound’. I really am a sucker for it. The old school Swedish death metal attack has me drooling and banging my head like a mother fucker within seconds of hearing ‘that’ tone, it’s almost like Pavlovian conditioning from all the good times enjoyed over the years with the likes of Entombed, Dismember and Grave, among hundreds of others I could list. Anyhow, when Facebreaker came up in the review pile, I jumped at it like a flesh starved zombie, bouncing off my laptop screen, my mind only thinking of angrily chewing my way through their new album like delicious human neck meat.
This is Facebreaker’s fourth full length album, and I’ve been a fan of their meat and potato, bone crunching take on the Swedish death metal sound since their debut album ‘Bloodred Hell’ was released back in 2004. Roberth Karlsson (formally of Pan.Thy.Monium) and co have again pieced together another trove of growling, battering death metal here, and thankfully not much has changed from their earlier material, if anything at all. They still have the fine production, bringing out every ounce of gore in the guitars and growled vocals, and they still have that excellent crushing guitar tone. Their main love has always been simplistic Bolt Thrower-styled chugging riffs bludgeoning their point across with the smallest amount of technicality possible, and that’s what they deliver again here. The thing is with this style is that, if you’re going to be simple, you have to have something about you, otherwise you’re going to bore the listener shitless. Thankfully, Facebreaker are well versed at crafting simplicity into something truly great, mastering the evil, minor key tones and blood dashed chords, utilizing them to maximum effect. There are also touches of early Asphyx in their sound here, as well as a Six Feet Under style swagger which occasionally penetrates through their style (but not too much, the main reference points are definitely Bolt Thrower & Swedeath). Lyrically, ‘Dedicated to the Flesh’ serves up another feast of brains for the undead masses, with lyrical topics ranging from.. well.. they’re pretty much all about zombies actually, bar the odd ode to human obliteration and the end of days via nuclear assault. Joyous shambling re-animated cuts include such ditties as “Zombie Flesh Cult”, “Zombie Outbreak” and “Tomb of the Hungry Dead” – but would you expect anything less? They stick to what they do best, and do it well.
For fans of the Swedish death metal sound, who aren’t looking for supreme technicality and mindblowing guitar histrionics, but instead want something which they can just stick on, bang their head to and enjoy – this is for you.
Now, where was I? Ah yes.. BRAAAINS! *shuffles off*
(7.5/10 Lars Christiansen)
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