MR. DEATH
Descending Through Ashes
(Agonia Records)
34:14min

Feeling a mild stench of a rotting corpse in your nostrils? Hearing a creeping noise of a living dead near by you, causing cold shivers running down your spine? That’s because MR. DEATH is near; soon knocking at your house’s front door to offer a new plate of cadaver-reeking and maggots-crawling hymns for your late nights’ pleasure. Stockholm, Sweden-based MR. DEATH that features five Swedish both unknown and relatively known gentlemen (ex-members of such Swedish Death Metal combos as TIAMAT, TREBLINKA, EXPULSION, etc.) who are lusting for playing dirty, ridiculously down-tuned and gritty old school Death Metal – the one and only Swedish style. You know, the style that was invented in the Stockholm area in late 80s / early 90s by NIHILIST, CARNAGE, TREBLINKA, DISMEMBER, CORPSE, etc. – and was in later years aped by thousands of young kids, eagerly sticking their own spoons into the same, popular cauldron of Death Metal music. "Descending Through Ashes", which is these Swedish corpse grinders’ 2nd full-length studio release within 2 years already, almost loyally follows the same deep traces that were found in the capital of Sweden some 20 years ago already. The same compelling vibe and feeling of those jolly good times, are tie-tightly attached to the songs of "Descending…"; so tightly and convincingly that it would be very easy to believe MR. DEATH recorded this very album is question about at the same time when f.ex. ENTOMBED’s 1993 album "Wolverine Blues" was first thrown among us – ripping all of our jaws completely wide open how good record it was after all with its ‘Death-‘n’-Roll’-ish  sound. Or, let’s take even a bit closer album comparison to MR. DEATH’s rocking and groovy sounding Death Metal on "Descending Through Ashes". FURBOWL, does that already defunct Swedish Death Metal act – once fronted by Johan Axelsson / Liiva (ex – CARNAGE, ex – DEVOURMENT, etc.), ring a bell? There’s anyway something strangely familiar on "Descending…" when you compare the record to FURBOWL’s 1994 album, "The Autumn Years", side by side. The familiar guitar crispy tone, the vocals, etc. – in fact, everything. MR. DEATH’s lastest offering would well be some sort of a bastard child of both "Wolverine Blues" and "The Autumn Years", so how can you possibly not like it? Of course unlike those aforementioned ENTOMBED’s and FURBOWL’s albums, "Descending…" cannot ever reach the same status as "Wolverine Blues", or ""The Autumn Years", to be considered as ‘classic’, but so what – who actually cares in the first place? "Descending Through Ashes" keeps the flame alive for some nostalgic sounding Swedish old school Death Metal nonetheless – and basically that’s all we should care for after all. www.mrdeath.se, www.agoniarecords.com

Luxi Lahtinen

Luxi Lahtinen

Related reviews / interviews:
MR. DEATH - Death Suits You (Julián "Mr. Autopsy" Núñez)
MR. DEATH - Detached From Life (Michael Tak)
MR. DEATH - Unearthing (Hauber)

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