You know you’ve made it as a band if you’ve signed to Metal Blade, let’s be honest about it. Lik (that’s Swedish for Corpse, language-fans) are an oldschool Swedish Death Metal band from…um…Sweden, and they made quite the splash when they released their “Carnage” album back in 2018, being as it was a very fun – if not too memorable – slice of nostalgia. The stakes are quite high for this album, as it has been hotly anticipated within death metal circles for some time. Is the hype justified?
Well, to cut a long story short, yep, it is. While the basic ingredients of this type of extreme metal are still there – the buzzsaw trademark HM-2 pedal sound, the thrashy rhythms and the bellowed yet decipherable vocals, there is an extra little ingredient here too. The songs. The songs are good. More than that, the songs are gooooood. Lik always had the sound and the aesthetic, but now they have the songwriting chops to back up their reputation. “Misanthropic Breed” is easily the most accomplished in their discography.
What’s changed? Well, it’s in the crafting of the songs themselves. Perhaps more than ever there is a perceptible Dismember influence, though I would say that Lik, if anything, take the melodic elements that Dismember brought to the fore to the next level. The guitar soloing in “Decay”, for instance owes much more to classic metal than it does to the death metal bands of yesteryear. “Funeral Anthem” has the kind of explosive swagger and confidence that bands three times their size have yet to accomplish, and it’s done with top-level aplomb, keeping groove together with enough power and punch to satisfy the most demanding of denim-clad long-hairs.
A special mention to the great song title and play on words with “Female Fatal to the Flesh” (bringing to mind my favourite Morbid Angel album), and with it the lurching, spasming rhythm and belched vocals. When this song slows down in the mid section? Well, daaaaaaaamn son. That’s really some effective stuff right there. Very nifty drum work and more atmosphere than when I open my 17 year old son’s bedroom door after a weekend of him lurking in his pit. There’s an obligatory instrumental track in “Misanthropic Breed”, but after that, it’s back to the mid to fast paced death metal madness.
Production wise, this is a really punchy record. It sounds perfectly mixed to have the clarity that the melodic guitar work demands, but keeps enough of the gritty filth to keep it sounding suitably gnarled and rancid. I can certainly see why they’ve been making waves. “Misanthropic Breed” really is a top tier piece of work. Recommended for all of you with taste, and who want a little more invention and melody with their buzzsaws.
(8.5/10 Chris Davison)
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