Loss of life metallic is a style that prides itself on extra. Blood, gore, viscera, homicide, serial killers and each different gnarly matter you’ll be able to suppose are all inside its lyrical crosshairs, and throughout its near-four-decade historical past there have been a bunch of bands who’ve matched these excessive themes with some really disgusting music.
Lik, a Stockholm supergroup that includes members of Katatonia and Massacre, are historians of their style. Their music revisits their style’s early-90s Scandinavian sound, whereas their new album Necro options songs about struggle, demise, necrophilia and different such beautiful issues. So, I sat down with guitarist (and Katatonia bassist) Niklas Sandin to get his picks for essentially the most disturbing, offensive and violent-sounding albums demise metallic has ever spat up. Get pleasure from!
Disgorge – She Lay Gutted (Distinctive Chief, 1999)
“She Lay Gutted may be very relentless and fairly nasty. It’s very guttural and I really feel that it virtually crosses the border into grindcore. It’s technical: it’s a type of albums the place you actually need to focus to listen to the riffs. They’re very Stockholm demise metallic, with the chainsaw sound. And the art work may be very romantic. Ha ha ha!
“I believe a good friend beneficial it to me. He preferred these sorts of bands from the Distinctive Chief roster. I don’t take heed to it a lot these days however I’m going again to it once I need to clear my head. If I need to do a crash-dump on my mind, it really works.”
“That is an album it is advisable take heed to over and over. The guitar work and the way they prepare the music, it’s not, like, ‘straight-on’. You don’t simply go, ‘OK, that is this track now.’ But it surely’s very brutal. I just like the manufacturing. It really works in the identical method because the Disgorge album: if I’m feeling sleepy on a airplane or going someplace, I can put it on and I’m energised once more.
“[Cannibal Corpse guitarist and Hate Eternal member] Erik Rutan produced this, and I believe he has what it is advisable be a great demise metallic producer. It seems like he’s somebody who lives and breathes demise metallic, not solely by producing different bands however doing Hate Everlasting for ages.”
“My first Dismember album was Loss of life Steel. My sister gave it to me. She used to become involved in Sweden’s nationwide radio, one thing known as Grottan, which implies ‘the cave’ in English. She’d keep up late and reply their questions on metallic. She gained a great deal of stuff, together with that album. She fell out of affection with metallic a couple of years later and I adopted fairly a couple of information from her.
“The factor with Loss of life Steel, it’s very brutal, nevertheless it additionally has melodic, Iron Maiden-esque leads. It’s slightly bit Gothenburg. It’s out and in with how melodic it’s. It begins very melodic, then comes a brutal track! It’s like watching a horror film: if it’s monsters and gore and knives within the abdomen on a regular basis it loses its effectivity. There should be calm components as properly.”
Decapitated – Natural Hallucinosis (Earache, 2006)
“I’ve at all times been a fan of Decapitated, particularly their earlier work. The one that basically resonates with me is Natural Hallucinosis. It’s their solely just one with Adrian Kowanek on vocals, as he was very sadly a part of that accident [the band’s tour bus crashed in 2007, paralysing Kowanek and killing drummer Witold Kiełtyka].
“It’s a really constant album, and its songs simply hit you more durable and more durable. It really works each time and I’m by no means disillusioned once I put it on. It’s additionally an actual spotlight of Vogg’s [bandleader Wacław Kiełtyka]: he’s a terrific songriter and guitarist. He has one thing particular along with his solos. He has a really clear solo sound – typically it’s virtually too good for demise metallic!”
“After I was a teen, I went right into a report store right here in Stockholm and noticed that cowl. I bear in mind taking part in that album for the primary time, cranking the amount, and listening to that kick drum! Doc’s [late drummer Krzysztof Raczkowski] taking part in is so brutal! It flattens your face.
“My favorite observe is Xeper and, if I’m not mistaken, Vader are going to be doing a little Litany exhibits. I’d like to see a type of exhibits, however I’m unsure I’m gonna make it. Ha ha!”
Lik’s new album Necro is out on April 18 by way of Steel Blade