Year: 2006

Label: Relapse Records/Black Lodge Records

Death metal today still reels from Suffocation derived riffery, having given rise to the uber-brutal, Skinless and Devourment worshipping death-heads that, for the better part, dominate the death metal scene in the USA today. Inbetween stuffing as many notes as humanly possible in the span of a 3 minute song and indulging in inane tomfooleries in the name of being “br00tal”, US death metal has largely forgotten its mighty Floridan roots. However, a few thousand miles away, a little country called Sweden still continues to churn out the best goddamn death metal our twisted (and by now, partially deaf. hyok!!) ears could hope for. The reasons are simple. Swedish bands have not fallen prey to the note count. The emphasis on the power of the almighty RIFF combined with an admirable, almost rabid dedication to the Dismember/Entombed roots have enabled Swedish bands to churn out record after crushing record of terrifyingly consistent death metal.

Alright, then. Onward to the album in question, Stinking Up The Night by Death Breath (that name always reminds me of a girlfriend I had but that’s a story for later.)

The names behind the Death Breath engine are truly impressive, boasting 2 of the biggest Swedish metal masterminds, Nicke Andersson (of Entombed/Nihilst fame) and Robert Pehrsson (of Runemagick and Deathwitch) with an even more droolworthy entourage of live musicians including, but not restricted to Jorgen Sandstrom (if you do not know who that is, it would be wise to exit now.) and Scott Carlson. So what we have here is a veritable juggernaut of potential. Sounds good so far, right?

Make no mistake, what Death Breath have managed to achieve on Stinking Up The Night is not original in anyway. Death Breath’s music mixes copious amounts of Nihilist and Entombed influenced buzzsaw riffs with (hold your breath!) sludgy, chugging, skullcrushing slower segments derived from Autopsy. The emphasis on this record (seemingly, at least) is not to indulge in pretentious, technical songwriting but simply to create a riff-driven, no-frills, enjoyable death metal record to cater to that segment of us who still thrive upon memories of Sunlight Records and Morrisound accomplishments in the metal of death. Song-wise, my favourites would be Dragged Through The Mud, with its unabashed Reifert-ian references and the morbidly enjoyable, Lovercraft-themed Flabby Little Things From Beyond. This is not to say that Chopping Spree, with its Repulsion-esque feel (courtesy of Mr. Scott Carlson, no less) or Coffins Of The Unembalmed Dead which sounds like something that didn’t quite cut it to Left Hand Path (that’s not a bad thing at all) are any less testimony to the prowess of the band.

Whether or not this association can be attributed with the ongoing trend of latching on to an old-school sound (some screaming cashing-in, do you say?) is unclear, but the fact remains that overall, Stinking Up The Night is a seething beast of nostalgia for death metal fans, combining some of the best elements of this form of music from both sides of the Atlantic. Buy it!