After the first riffs of “Decapitated” my first impression was “here we go again with another Swedish old school D-Beat Death Metal act”. I wasn’t far from my initial impression, but don’t misunderstand me, I really love the style, but with over 1000 bands over the world trying to emulate what once was it’s really difficult to be easily impressed. This Kramfors, Sweden based four piece act has been around since the early 90s, so they experienced in first person the whole original Swe-Death explosion back in the day. They even recorded one demo tape in 1993, but it was buried and forgotten due to Scandinavian Black Metal was arising back then. But as some memorable examples (INTERMENT anyone?), they reunited in 2013 and released two more demo tapes with a warm but good response. So, the next step was to do a more ambitious recording, materialized as their debut album “Decapitated”, originally released some months ago as a self-released digital download, getting the attention from some labels, accepting the deal of Sweden based I Hate Records. And here we are with eleven (plus intro) tracks of crushing D-Beat Swedish Death Metal, with DISMEMBER being their most direct influence, some touches of MERCILESS, even reminding me of early BLOODBATH, but surpassing my expectations not being mere clones, with catchy riffs, crushing guitars, deep vociferations with a clear (or dark?) influence of Rogga Johansson. We also can notice some Swedish melo Death influences like the godly SACRILEGE. About the lyrical content, don’t expect poetry or high elaborated lyrics, only butchery, zombiefication, b-rated movies cult… just check song titles like ‘Bloodbath’, ‘The Asylum’, ‘Necrophiliac’ (not the classic SLAYER tune) or ‘Pestilent Fog’… so lovely tunes. It’s difficult to give more words about this album, but I guess with this review you got a near vision of it. I can only add that it’s a good album, not a highlight but above the average, recommended for you Swedish old school maniacs . Also available on vinyl format, please ask the band directly about this format: www.facebook.com/desolationsweden. CD orders direct to I Hate: www.ihate.se