Desultory
Counting our scars
Pulverised Records
Fourteen years is a long time to be out of the recording game, but these days reunion albums seem to be par for the death metal course. It's not really a surprise, then, that Sweden's Desultory arrived back on the scene with a new disc that, unlike a great many bands in the same position, is a hell of a lot better than their sign-off album back in 1996. How does it fair in today's overcrowded market, though? Well, despite the fact that it's far from groundbreaking, "Counting our scars" is a decent slab of semi-tech death metal that blends modern-day production values with a nostalgic glance at the band's past, including their melodic Paradise Lost leanings of the '90s. Though it is decent, that's not to say that I would go out and buy this. There's a hell of a lot of other stuff out there at the minute that deserves your hard-earned cash first. If you were a fan of the band back in the day, then it's a no-brainer; go out and buy the thing and you'll love it. If you haven't heard of them before, all I can do is warn you to tread with caution. It's one of those -- you might love it or you might wish you'd passed and handed over all those crinkly bits of paper for the latest Morbid Angel opus [doubtful, few things are worse than the latest Morbid Angel -- ed.].
- John Norby
