Welcome to the school of Rogganology where you can indulge in the writings and death metal ideology of the one and only Roger “Rogga” Johansson who currently is involved with 15 active bands, six past bands and four guest appearances to date in his discography. Around 2002 Paganizer was put on hold and said maestro released a couple of demos which eventually were compiled into an album under the title of “Stillborn Revelations” and issued through the Black Hole Productions label in Brazil only it appears. A couple of years later and “Revel In Human Flesh” was released and was rumoured to have drums done by a machine.

Roggaphiliacs probably already own these two albums which have been long out of print and put together onto one disc with three bonus tunes and released under the Paganizer band name, which makes sense as there is little to choose between Paganizer and Carve tunes. Rogga doesn’t really do anything apart from death metal whether it’s the downtuned thuggery of Bonegnawer or Bloodgut or the more complicated and progressive stuff of later Demiurg, the guy is a death metal icon. If I had a music shop I’d create my own Rogga section as homage. It does appear that the two lengthy outro pieces from each album have been omitted to make sure it all fits onto one album but essentially this is both studio full lengths with three bonus tunes as I mentioned.

The sound on “Stillborn Revelations” is monstrous with massive double bass and tsunami like bass lines underpinning the chainsaw riffing savagery which starts with “Darker Skies”. With 21 tunes to go at here each one is its own nail gunning blast into your cranium with thunderous double bass cruising along in each song. Rogga’s voice is demonically detestable, each gurgling bellow boring a hole into your abdomen like a white hot knife through soft fatty flesh. As with a lot of Rogga’s work there are massive injections of groove as on “…As Wolves Are Fed”, “Imhotep” and “Circle Of Damnation”. The latter of which has a corking riff and blast style I am a total sucker for as it borders grind a tad. “Operation Re-Crucified” is a battering amalgam of bedlam and blast, no finesse the song sets about kicking you to death with considerable bloody success.

The bonus tunes begin with “As Wolves” presented here as a slightly different sounding version. “The One True Hate” has momentary flashes of extreme thrash riffing but with a beastly death metal undercarriage. Equally crushing is “Cold As Fear” as the release switches to tracks from the “Revel In Human Flesh” release and the change is sound is distinct. The guitar sound is a little more hollow but still pulverising with intensity which contains the immense “Soulrape Unleashed” a gargantuan powerhouse song with a bulldozing double kick which if done by a machine is damn excellent. More guttural disembowelling greets you on “Dimview Afterlife” and “Amongst The Ruins” which singlehandedly will make you think why the hell didn’t I try to get these albums ten years ago, well now you can and if reasonably priced will certainly give you a massive Rogga fix if you missed it for more than a couple of weeks or so.

(8.5/10 Martin Harris)

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