I doubt there are many death metal bands that have the release rate and quality of Sweden’s Paganizer. Indeed this is the bands 13th full length and like previous albums the adage of if it isn’t broken then don’t fix it applies here without doubt. When I listen to Paganizer stuff I expect a total and utter battering from start to finish which is what you always get and this album is no different though there are some subtleties, which I’ll expand on later. The line-up has been constant since 2015 and whilst the band was formed by Rogga Johansson, who by the way has been in or is in 64 other acts, yep 64 you read that right when I totalled them up, I would say that Paganizer is Rogga’s main band due to the consistency and number of releases. Like previous albums the album cover art is wonderful too but this time it is a piece by the astonishingly good, and now late, Mariusz Lewandowski whose work has been used on a number of metal albums, particularly on Transcending Obscurity releases. His artwork is captivating and this piece is no less thought provoking.
The album kicks off with ‘Life Of Decay’, the first of twelve incendiary slabs of old school death metal to sink your rotten teeth into. What I have always liked about Paganizer albums is the huge reams of varying riffs as the opener blasts in without ceremony to unveil its abrasive guitar sound and a production that death metal bands the world over I’m sure would love to achieve. Granted the band has longevity and experience but it no less detracts from the expertise at play here. I mentioned earlier that there are some subtleties to this album that the opening tune bears witness to this with some fine melodic guitar hooks added alongside the stomping and storming onslaught it possesses. ‘Meat Factory’ follows with a caustic riff insertion and blasted speed before unleashing a trademark riff break accompanied by a change in speed and Rogga’s disembowelling vocals. Again subtleties abound especially with the dread like aura and sinister toning when it slows down.
There are no filler tracks on this album whatsoever, each is a definitive demonstration of how to write bludgeoning death metal but maintain modernity as the title track ably showcases. The song is slower and saturated in atmosphere, the almost doleful aura is steeped in melancholy initially before it switches into business as usual deathly thuggery. It is these quirky aspects that make this album so addictive to listen to. I can’t analyse all the songs, though I could quite easily as ‘Viking Supremacy’ is a battering firestorm of drum work and skull crushing mayhem. The riff break is immense, tempered by a decrease in speed as the vocals have that unerring guttural tonality but still resolute in clarity.
War noises start ‘World Scythe’ as here the song has a melodic death metal ethos primarily but as it deviates into the dense opaque riffing the vocals ensure the tune is crammed with wrathful darkness, despite the slower pacing before ‘Fare Thee Well (Burn In Hell)’ returns the album to blasted realms. Like most of the songs the constant tempo variations intensify everything but at the heart is unmitigated fury as ‘The Pyroclastic Excursions’ perfectly exhibits. I did like the preceding tune too, slower and more doom like, ‘Necromonolithic’ has that punishing sound before the step on the accelerator.
The album closes with a stupendous doublet the first of which is ‘Suffer Again’ as here the opening slow phase lures you into false security before it punches through with pulverising riffing and blasted speed. This leave ‘Skeletons’ to end this awesome album and is marginally longer, relatively speaking that is, and thunders in with a double bass demolition of epic proportions, something the album has in droves I should add. The melodic riffing is evident here but the sheer weight of the drumming makes it more intense despite it being overtly catchy and ends the release in superb fashion.
I didn’t think Paganizer could improve upon their last album, but they have and have now set the benchmark for subsequent releases of which I expect at least another 13 albums plus the copious other releases in between. A staggering album from start to finish and well worth its perfect score.
(10/10 Martin Harris)
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