Hierophant Nox

ALBUM REVIEW

Mr Death - Detached from Life
Agonia Records
Another cannon blast from the artillery of old school death metal in the form of Sweden’s Mr Death, a recently-formed outfit featuring early-days Tiamat members Jorgen and Stefan in association with some equally raucous fellow countrymen. “Detached from Life” follows on sharply from a demo in 2008 – these folks know precisely what kind of a sound they want to make, and are hungry to get making it. Noisy, nasty, muscular Swedish death metal is the order of the day, designed to rouse the rabble and raze the neighbourhood.

The tracks on offer are brutally to-the-point, with an average duration barely scraping the three minute mark, but Mr Death make sure each is notable. “Suffer” opens proceedings as feedback and cymbal bashing give way to a low and brutal death metal roll, with basement-of-hell vocals and a vicious impetus. “A Dying God” wields an impressive amount of aggressive power, making use of slower, meaner shapes, whilst “Muse of Chaos” experiments with some tricky beats and a churning sound. “Combined Anatomy” is an awesome track, slow and deliberate until the mood changes and a proper death metal racket is born. “Misery’s Womb” has an excellent lead, bulldozering and complicated at the same time, whilst “The Storm” is interesting for its fuller sound, which eventually opens out into a full-scale cacophony.

That’s not to say “Detached from Life” is without filler – there are a couple of occasions upon which a track is virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor, and when you’ve only got half an hour to play with, that’s not so hot. Still, it’s unfair to complain about a band being generic when they’re purposefully chasing the spirit of the past, and it’s sad to see commentators sneer at acts such as Mr Death when really they’re adding to the mighty salvo of face-crushing artillery that’s probably very much needed to counter the commercial metal-lite that makes the world a more miserable place these days. Furthermore, “Detached from Life” is an enjoyable, aggressive half-hour, its Tomas Skogsberg production capable of hitting the spot without drawing overmuch attention to itself.

While not quite as searing or incisive as fellow countrymen/labelmates Die Hard, Mr Death are jogging along comfortably at the head of the retro death metal pack. Their nose for a good structure and ability to create savage slices of metal that fans genuinely delight to hear should outweigh considerations of innovation or progressiveness. “Detached from Life” can’t fail to elicit a gut-deep reaction in death metal fans when pumped up loud, and doesn’t need a ‘twist’ or a fancy name to sell itself. Sometimes a spade is a spade, and you should just use it to smack someone round the head and be done with it.