The first thing I'll say about this album is that it's a grower. First impressions are that it's yet another run-of-the-mill technical death metal blastfest, but after a few listens "Death gods" begins to redeem itself. There's nothing entirely new going on here at all, rather it's a collection of tunes that border on the oldschool Swedish sound and style and that manage to better the output of a great deal of the Swedish bands who have been embracing the revival over the last few years. That's not to say that Deathchain are jumping on the funeral cart -- they've been in the business of doing their own thing for the last decade and they've been damn good at it too. The bottom line on describing "Death gods" is that it will appeal to anyone hoping to find something a little more high-end in the current HM-2 explosion. The production does a good job of extracting maximum heaviness from all involved and, in the oversaturation within this genre right now, this can often be a deciding factor in purchase decisions. A bit more listener perseverance than usual required for this one but that's what elevates it from a 2 to a 7. - John Norby
has confirmed that Finnish death-thrashers Deathchain will release their new album "Death gods" on September 29. Said album will be available on CD and mp3, as well as in a 2LP edition with a bonus track. Full details: http://cobrarecords.fi/?n=21
Hear a new sample tune at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/deathchainofficial
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Enforcer - High roller
02. TALK 1
03. Robyn - Dancing on my own
04. The Amazing - And it looks like today
05. Årabrot - End of first chant: II
06. TALK 2
07. The Bombettes - Cherry shot
08. Underachiever - No rain (arson)
09. Lapko - Kiss 'n' cry
10. TALK 3
11. The Howard Way - Runaway
12. Familjen - Socker
13. Deathchain - The crawling chaos
14. Lågkonjunkturen - Den här låten handlar om...
15. TALK 4
16. Anna von Hausswolff - Track of time
17. Marit Bergman - Free falling
18. Jennie Abrahamson - I lost my heart
19. TALK 5
20. Menfolk - Rubato (con song)
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Finnish metal acts Sotajumala and Deathchain have a new split CD out now via and the label was kind enough to send a copy my way. Conceptually speaking, it's a fun idea: two bands, one original song plus one Iron Maiden cover each. In execution however, all is not well. Things start off poorly with Sotajumala's "Sinun virtesi", a typical modern death metal track with clicky drums (heavy on the blasts, 'natch), burpy vocals and your usual swarm-of-bees guitar tone. Totally pointless, totally boring. Their Maiden cover on the other hand ("Prowler"), is excellent, no doubt helped along a fair extent by the appearance of one Paul Di'anno on lead vocals. Stop and ponder how sad it is that the dude is now reduced to doing karaoke covers of his old band's songs and the luster starts to dim, but he does actually sound remarkably good still, near 30-some years down the road. Deathchain doesn't fair nearly as well with their take on "Purgatory" -- they're way too stiff to approximate Maiden's trademark gallop and guest vocalist Tommi "Tuple" Salmela (Tarot) pretty much sucks. All is not lost though, Deathchain's one original cut ("The crawling chaos") is a total black-thrash rager in the vein of Grotesque or The Crown. All razor sharp riffs and harsh vocals -- definitely bodes well for the band's forthcoming album. I love Maiden and all, but this one song is the winner by a longshot.
has confirmed two new releases on the horizon -- first up is The Man-Eating Tree, the new band from ex-Sentenced drummer Vesa Ranta, who will be releasing their debut full-length "Vine" in September. Samples here. Second is a split between Finnish extreme metal acts Sotajumala and Deathchain which will feature one new song plus one Iron Maiden cover each, with Deathchain taking on "Purgatory" and Sotajumala covering "The prowler" with guest vocals from OG singer Paul Di'anno. That release will be available on April 28.
Deathchain