Tag Archives: Peter Dolving

Shredhead – Death Is Righteous

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German-based Israeli quartet Shredhead have just released their sophomore album, Death Is Righteous (Mighty Music). Despite the cheesy moniker and gaudy album artwork, the band – Aharon Ragoza (vocals), Yotam Nagor (guitars), Lee Lavy (bass) and Roee Kahana (drums) – are actually a surprisingly tight thrash outfit.

Muscular, groove-laden riffing is the order of the day, and everything on Death Is Righteous brings to mind the likes of Pantera circa ’91-94, Lamb of God, Sylosis and Dolving-era The Haunted. Such hero worship works out well; generally it’s a relentless swirl of shredding, squealing solos, Anselmo-esque screams and pummelling drums.

There’s plenty of good songs too; ‘Devil’s Race’, ‘The Lie’ and ‘Walk with the Dead’ all get the blood pumping with a furious mix of speed, groove and aggression. The likes of ‘Last Words Are Lost’ and ‘Hallucinations’ even stray into death metal territory. Shredhead are clearly a talented band – Nagor’s guitar work is especially impressive at times – and the ferocity rarely lets up and the appearance of Tue Madsen (The Haunted, Suicide Silence and Dark Tranquillity) on mixing/mastering duties give the whole thing a clear but muscular sound.

Unfortunately the consistency isn’t there and the song writing often lets them down. None of the songs are bad, but it’s often a case of once heard, soon forgotten – the title track is fairly non-descript and the album distinctly tails off towards the end.

If you’re after a stop gap until the next Lamb of God release, this should tide you over nicely. For the majority of its 42 minute runtime, Death Is Righteous delivers an enjoyable excuse to head bang. Unfortunately there’s too few standout moments for this to be a memorable or enduring listen, but maybe ones to watch for the future.

6.5/10

Shredhead on Facebook

DAN SWINHOE


The Haunted – Exit Wounds

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The Haunted are one of those bands that peaked early and spent the intervening years trying to match past feats. It’s been almost 15 years six albums and since 2000’s Made Me Do It, but they have finally made an album that is easily on the same level, if not better than their magnum opus.

Exit Wounds (Century Media) sees the return of Marco Aro on vocals, and a return to a heavier, more traditionally ‘Swedish’ sound. Gone are swathes of clean vocals seen on 2011’s unloved Unseen, along with the more hardcore aspects that were a staple of former vocalist Peter Dolving’s tenure. In its place is a furious album of aggressive thrash and classic melodic death metal.

Whether it’s the return of Aro and Adrian Erlandsson on drums, or the arrival of new guitarist Ola Englund (Six Feet Under), the band sound reinvigorated. The album is filled with urgency and manages to be relentlessly heavy without compromising on those insanely catchy riffs. The classic In Flames and At The Gates influences are easy to make out, but there’s plenty of moments that bring to mind Lamb Of God at their most intense.

From the crushing ‘Cutting Teeth’ and the groove-laden ‘Time (Will Not Heal)’ to the catchy choruses of ‘Psychonaut’ and ‘Eye of The Storm’, there’s little let up in terms of aggression or quality. Aro’s guttural vocals are uncompromising, but it’s the array of Jeff Hannemen-inspired shredding and searing solos from guitarists Patrik Jensen and Englund that really make the album. Even at a lengthy 14 tracks, the band manage to keep focus and retain the listener’s interest; the galloping riffs and epic chorus of ‘Ghost In The Machine’ round off an album filled with quality moments.

After the relative hiccup of Unseen and arguably a case of diminishing returns for a while now, The Haunted have come back stronger than ever. Whether Exit Wounds is actually better than Made Me Do It doesn’t really matter. It’s easily the band’s best effort a decade, and if it wasn’t for an impending album from At The Gates, by far the best album from Sweden in 2014.

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9/10

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Dan Swinhoe