Death Breath - Stinking Up the Night

This post owes its existence to Albert Mudrian, editor-in-chief of Decibel, in two ways. First, Nicke Andersson, who used to drum for Entombed and now sings for The Hellacopters, was inspired to return to death metal and form this band after reading Mudrian's book Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore. Second, this blog takes its name from the hilarious Decibel article on "invisible oranges." Choosing Death is a fine read; you can read my interview with Mudrian about it here.

Stinking Up the Night (on Relapse) is a self-described return to old school death metal. I'm wary of such premeditated stylistic exercises, but it's done surprisingly well. I say "surprisingly" because, honestly, it's been a while since anything associated with Entombed caused excitement. I also say "surprisingly" because singing and playing guitar on this album is Robert Pehrsson, who is in Thunder Express along with one of The Hellacopters. If you check out Pehrsson's MySpace, you'll see (and hear) that he's more of a classic rock and pop type of guy. Mind you, he's really good at it, but it's so not metal. Thus, the midrange growl he unleashes here is quite a surprise. He's no LG Petrov, but he does the job nicely.

Some of these songs could have made it onto Clandestine; the album really nails the old school vibe. Entombed was always more about pentatonics than technicality, and that shines through here. The riffs, playing, and production are all thick and dirty. The artwork, down to the Possessed-esque logo, captures the B-grade horror movie vibe of the tongue-in-cheek lyrics: "Your body's to be severed / For your members / I'll go out on a limb / I got this chopping endeavor." Bonus points for guest vocals from Scott Carlson (Repulsion) and Jörgen Sandström (Grave, Entombed), and for naming a song after your own band. Carlson's on the second clip here.

Death Breath - Death Breath
Death Breath - Coffins of the Unembalmed Dead

Death Breath seems to be just a side project, as Andersson has expressed no interest in touring, and he and Pehrsson obviously have other, unmetallic priorities. [EDIT: Pehrsson just wrote me: "We will continue with Death Breath and it's not a project though. We're a band and we are recording new songs right now. We'll see when we'll tour, we want Scott to join us on tour (just did our first show here in Sweden and he came over for it) so we have to plan it all well."] Cheers to them, then, for doing this album right. You can find it

@ Relapse
@ The End