There seems to be quite a few Death n Roll releases recently springing from combinations of bands. Odd, must be something in the water 27 years after Entombed released the Blueprint “Wolverine Blues”. Hot on the leather bound heels of Bombs of Hades come Reek spearheaded by Paganizer’s Rogga Johansson and Wombbath’s Hakn Stuvemark . It certainly has more of the crusty punky feel of Paganizer’s early work like Deadbanger than their more recent straight up DM fare and the production has certainly been damped to give a real Discharge grubbiness to it.

The drums are a disappointment from the get go with bass drum on opener “Condemned By the Hands of Pain” sounding like a clicky child’s toy rather than the sound of an enormous door slamming on the gates of hell.  This plagues the whole album and I am finding it hard to ignore but I feel I must.

The tracks are straight up groovy Death n Roll. Nothing new, nothing that exciting but pleasant enough.  Flesh Golem has a solo that sounds like it is being played by a kid on guitar hero on a youtube video and sounds like it was produced by a different person in a different studio.

I have sat with this album for a week to let it scab up. At first it got me going – I appreciated the rough riffs and gruff vocals but once I concentrated a bit harder it began to sound like musicians trying too hard to create something. Like the punk lite that surfaced in 1979 in the UK.

“Gold In Your Throat” canters along at a great pace but that clicky bass drum is like purple glitter on a Conflict album cover. Aesthetic ruined.

“The Eaters” has a lovely dirty groove to it – very Entombed and some great guttural growls. “Foaming at the Mouth” is more of a straight up DM affair but oh so sloppy.

“Tyranny of Blood” is an absolute rager that even the terrible drum sound cannot ruin. Proper angry, spit and arm spikes, dirty death and roll. Big high-pitched guitar lines fired into the air like mortars upon an unsuspecting village then an unending barrage of pounding bass. “A Matter of Time” drops some Boltthrower style gravitas into the mix and the 90’s sounding solo blasts bring back memories of pre MySpace days.

The rest of the album continues in the same vein. I am reminded of the flashback scenes in TV sitcoms when we geta glance at the main protagonists 20 years before. We are supposed to imagine that Ray Ramano in a wig and a disco t-shirt is really him at college but we are in on the joke that this is just cheap props. I get the same feeling with this dress up and make believe album. It’s fun to a point but that point starts to have a need.

It amazes me that the accompanying PR blurb mentions this being the possible revival of a genre? As if there weren’t so many other bands still playing this style a lot better just in Scandinavia. Hmmm. The Emperor has no crust pants!

(6/10 Matt Mason)

https://www.facebook.com/REEK-Sweden-104611050916938

https://testimonyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/reek-death-is-something-there-between