BLOODBATH

Grand Morbid Funeral

Peaceville
rating icon 8.5 / 10

Track listing:

01. Let the Stillborn Come to Me
02. Total Death Exhumed
03. Anne
04. Church of Vastitas
05. Famine of God's Word
06. Mental Abortion
07. Beyond Cremation
08. His Infernal Necropsy
09. Unite in Pain
10. My Torturer
11. Grand Morbid Funeral


It's been six years since death metal superpower BLOODBATH has made its rambunctious presence known on album. In that time, both OPETH and KATATONIA have become international stars of metal by exploring well outside the box of their death and black metal roots. There's no question Martin "Axe" Axenrot, Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström, Per "Sodomizer" Eriksson and Jonas Renske are metal as fuck, particularly when coming together outside of their respective home bases in BLOODBATH. This time, OPETH's Mikael Åkerfeldt, who opted for all clean singing on "Pale Communion", bows out of growling duties in BLOODBATH as PARADISE LOST vocalist Nick Holmes takes his place. That's about all that's changed since BLOODBATH released "The Fathomless Mastery" in 2008. Fans will be pleased to know the new album "Grand Morbid Funeral" brings the same old-school, brutalized death metal BLOODBATH has been hailed for.

The icky-titled "Let the Stillborn Come to Me" is out to remind listeners this is BLOODBATH, not OPETH or KATATONIA. Roaring mostly at a fierce tempo, random switch-ups to mosh modes and a dirge slog in the middle of the track break up the mayhem just enough to show off the excellence of BLOODBATH's esteemed stable. "Total Death Consumed" afterwards is consummate chaos as the clobbering tempos are nearly as sick as the shredding guitars. When BLOODBATH does a breakdown, expect awesomeness instead of blasé prototypes, and they take every grueling measure to make "Total Death Consumed" exert its way back to a blistering thrash path. The guitars flog and flail, no matter what speed the song takes. There's such unapologetic fury dumped into BLOODBATH's broil there's no questioning the roots of the players hold strong no matter where they journey musically outside of this severe hub.

The slower chug opening "Anne" surrenders to reckless speed as the drumming gets so fast it teeters on the edge of capsizing, while the guitars are giddily untamed. BLOODBATH repeats the scheme as the guitar solo climbs and pauses with the rest of the band before all stations go even faster. This is death metal at its finest, no matter what school you cite. By contrast, the beleaguering "Church of Vastitas" trades speed for a tonal monstrosity, churning out riffs at minimum velocity but with maximum heaviness.

One only needs to wait for "Famine of God's Word" thereafter for another speed fix and it's to the listener's judgment which is more impressive, the fast, digging riffs, the howling scales or the sinewy slams from Martin Axenrot. The buzzsaw punk riffs on "Mental Abortion" seem almost tireless until the song transitions to an anguishing death crawl which serves up a railing guitar solo and worms itself to a blasting finale.

If this wasn't BLOODBATH, it wouldn't seem like "Grand Morbid Funeral" could get any heavier, but sure enough, it does on "Beyond Cremation", where every bar, fast and slow, is gored, much less played. The guitar swarms overtop the shredding are pleasingly hellish and even the slowdowns contain more crunch than a proto metal band could ever hope to possess.

There's no point describing the rest of the album since the script is the same, save for a reversion course on the title track. The endpoint to be made about "Grand Morbid Funeral" and BLOODBATH is that for those who might have written off OPETH and KATATONIA, here is where you'll find solace. There's zero compromise on "Grand Morbid Funeral". It's akin to CELTIC FROST and POSSESSED in the old days with a Swedish death metal touch. This equates into nasty speed, bashing slowdowns and exceptional guitar work that normally requires certification from peers but comes automatic with the players' reputations. What gets blown into "My Torturer" is so off-the-chart it defies emulation.

Crank it.

Author: Ray Van Horn, Jr.
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).