In Thy Dreams

Highest Beauty (Century Media)
by Scott Hefflon

Funny, Swedes like these guys helped push the whole melodic death metal thing forward, and yet these guys in particular always seem a pace behind the leaders. You could blame WAR music (formerly Wrong Again Records, who brought us early Arch Enemy, Cryptopsy, and In Flames material and now are home to Naglfar, Darkane, and Andromeda), but various delays encouraged the creation of the overdriven Carnal Forge, so how can ya really complain? Highest Beauty has been trumped badly production-wise (hard to compete with the near-immaculate output of Spikefarm), but this is now probably considered “thrashy, old school Swedish death metal,” seeing as we reinvent things quicker and quicker these days. A bit dusty and throatier, with a guitar chug like a shotgun cocking and a double-bass thumping like when ya really hit yer stride on the speedbag.
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