Mr. Death

Detached From Life

Agonia Records 2009

Sweden is well known for its traditional death metal heritage.  One of the founders of that scene was Treblinka/Tiamat and Mr. Death features two former members of those projects.  So what can we expect from Mr. Death, you guessed it, traditional, no-frills Swedish death metal.  Suffer opens the album in the vein of Unleashed's debut album with thick swedish riffs and the occasional blasting passage that dominate with power and might.  Some Grave grooves and American death metal brutality are revealed on Fin to compliment the speedy Unleashed influenced riffing.  Meaty death metal riffs and bludgeoning double-bass drums kick into your face like a jackhammer on A Dying God.  The track slows down into ultra-heavy Swedish riffs that accentuate the down-tuned guitars' morbidity.  Combined Anatomy embraces some of the slowed down gore-drenched brutality of such bands like Avulsed where the riffs seem almost stuck in sticky entrails.  My favorite track has to be Misery's Womb with its Grave inspired main riff and the deep, primordial passage that dwells almost in doomy sludge.  A metallic bass guitar slices into your cranium before a catchy, traditional Stockholm riff eviscerates you on The Storm.  The riff flows through seemless transitions while the drums hack away at your skull ceaselessly.  Pure audio violence.  Mr. Death offers us something familiar yet unremarkable.  Detached from Life is a solid album that breaks no new ground, but that is basically the point.  For Stockholm style death metal fanatics.