Unborn

Allegedly, this is the continuation of last year’s effort, “Undead”. You can read my opinion on that one here, and of course, there are tons and tons of almost – if not openly – surprised reviews on that one. Apparently, audiences and critics from all over the world have finally given Chris Barnes and gang some credit for their primitive approach to death metal. Truth be told, that work wasn’t bad at all. So, can its twin “Unborn” live up the relative success of its predecessor?

If anything, I think SFU’s weakest point has been songwriting, which has ranged from poor to mediocre to dull to somewhat catchy over the years. It’s true there have been some high points in their career, but even Mr Barnes has finally faced it: He’s not a great songwriter. Luckily for us all, he’s taken that humbly and summoned some reinforcements to back him up in that department. For what I know, Ben Savage from Whitechapel and Jari Laine from Torture Killer were involved in the writing process of this album, and whatever my opinion on those guys or their acts is, I can gladly inform their influence proved quite refreshing for SFU’s 13th full-length.

The way I see things, this is perhaps the darkest work ever released by SFU. It feels heavy, thick and sharp at the same time, and although the rock-like riffs are still there, they’re much faster now, so that they appear more aggressive and tense rather than the regular groove that we were used to. At the same time, songs are more and better elaborate so that for once you’ll really not know what a whole track is about just by listening to it for a minute or so. Most of them won’t even reach a 4 minutes length, and still, some of them feel a bit longer than that. Not that they’re tedious, not at all. They unfold smoothly – if possible – from one theme to another without the listener even noticing.

Take “Zombie blood curse” or “The curse of ancients” for instance.

As for the vocals, good ol’ Chris has finally left behind his super bass growling and moved onto a more shouted sort of barked vocals which are not exactly new, but carry at least one advantage: You can actually understand what the fuck he’s shouting about. Now that I put it in words, I’m not sure that’s actually a pro. Won’t we ever get bored of gore lyrics? I mean, how creative can you really get after two decades of guts, blood, flesh and corpses? Anyway, for those who used to bitch about his caveman kind of growling, now there’s a great chance to bitch about his shouting.

The overall sound is clear and strong, and I must say that’s difficult for me not to appreciate the relevance that bass guitar has finally got in several momentums along the records. However, and regardless how good some songs are, most of the tracks are not memorable at all. Let’s say that all tracks are average or better, yet the number of average ones is too damn high!

All in all, I think this is a fair effort. Pretty consistent and with some excellent moments, if you ask me. It’s two years in a row that we’ve gotten higher than average releases from this project from Florida – nobody would ever dare to call this a band – and who knows what else will come with the future?

—Originally written for www.globaldomination.se