Today’s two reviews don’t just embody the polar opposite ends of the spectrum that is my music taste, but the polar opposite ends of Swedish hard and heavy music. On one end, we have melodic rockers Art Nation and their new album, Inception: A slick collection of Scandinavian melodic rock anthems. On the other, we have Imperishable, the new band formed by brothers Robin and Niklas Holmberg of Vampire fame (Remember them from 2020?) They too are melodic, but within the context of scuzzy Swedish death metal, not AOR.
On their debut album, Come, Sweet Death, Imperishable takes us back in time to Sweden circa 1991. Between Florida cementing itself as the death metal capital of the world and the UK adding a misanthropic, grinding spin on the emerging sound, the Swedes decided to unleash their own take on death metal; a spin that prioritized darkness and unease above all else. Many modern death metal acts have attempted this sound since, most doing so poorly. Imperishable, on the other hand, captures the aggressive nature of this sacred era with abnormal accuracy.
The lion’s share of Come, Sweet Death can be categorized as either “Entombed worship” or “At the Gates worship”, so there’s no reinventing of the wheel to be heard here. However, with Entombed no longer with us and At the Gates growing rather stale, Come, Sweet Death boasts a bittersweet sense of nostalgia that bleeds through every HM-2 driven riff. Whether it be the soul-crushing “Venomous”, gruesome “Infernal Lust”, or chaotic “Vertiginous”, Imperishable have one foot rooted in the Left Hand Path and the other in The Red in the Sky.
There are occasional melodic flourishes, particularly in the twin guitar leads of Holmberg and Christopher Hjelte, but by no means would I label this a melodic death album. The unhinged rage lies far closer to the earliest days of AtG, before melody took centerstage. Also of note are the sporadic bursts of thrash, heard most prominently on the brutally violent “Teeth of the Hydra” and skull smashing “The Phantasm”, as well as the ominous shadows of 80s crust and hardcore. This latter influence is dominant on “The Perennial Desire”, which sounds like a deathified spin on a lost Anti-Cimex tune. In true 90s death metal fashion, this album wouldn’t be complete without some proto-death ‘n’ roll, as heard on “Fangs”.
Just as yesterday’s Torture Rack album was a deadly blast from the past, so is Come, Sweet Death. The Holmberg brothers have done an amazing job thus far replicating death metal circa ’86 with Vampire. I shouldn’t be surprised by the successful results of setting the time machine dial for 5 years later with Imperishable. I just hope this isn’t a one and done project, like so many side-outings tend to be. If the Holmbergs are able to balance both Vampire and Imperishable, there’s no telling what devastation awaits us for the remainder of the decade. One listen to Come, Sweet Death and you’ll be resting in festering slime.
7 out of 10
Label: Hammerheart Records
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Entombed, At the Gates, Dismember