For those that do not already know, Jesper Stromblad has, since leaving In Flames, started a new band called The Resistance. Most people probably know that the last few In Flames albums before he left could not really be called death metal, but he seems to have returned to his roots with The Resistance. The sound is basically classic Swedish death metal in the vein of Entombed and Dismember, with a bit of his signature melodic style thrown in for good measure. Personally I like it quite a bit, though what I've heard of the lyrics is not so impressive .

I actually quite liked that. The band's logo isn't very good (looks way too much like the Hatebreed logo), but the music was pretty good. Vocalist kinda sounds like Bjorn from Soilwork.

There's even a review here for the album

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/T ... rs/370281/

I'll check it out.

Did Stormblad ever play death metal in the first place?

I don't know about this, it was ok but just that. Really bland unmemorable in my opinion, I think I'll be skipping this one for sure.

Meh. The chorus riff is killer - sounds just like something off Left Hand Path - but the rest is a little bland. That more melodic middle eight is out of place and redundant too. Agreed about the logo, and the production is far too modern. The drum work is about right for death metal though, and that's the only part which is consistently good throughout.

I think it's worth mentioning the incredibly strong thrash metal influence that you conveniently left out.

For those wondering, this band is essentially a continuation of 'One Kill Wonder'-era "The Haunted". It has the same melodic death thrashy riffs and the same rough production. And to top it off, Marco Aro, The Haunted's vocalist on One Kill Wonder, is the vocalist for The Resistance.

I checked out their EP as soon as I heard about it and enjoyed it. I listened to their new album a few days ago actually and also really enjoyed that as well. I just hope The Resistance doesn't follow the same downward spiraling path that The Haunted did.

I have both the EP and Scars and I think they are awesome. It's old school swedeath with some hardcore and melody thrown in for good measure. It's hard to choose but I would say that my favourite tracks on the full length are Eye For An Eye, Imperfected, I Bend - You Break and Scars.

I think everything on the record, especially Marco Aro's vocals, are awesome. A solid 90% for me.

Sounds pretty good to me, and yes, quite a bit like The Haunted who's early stuff I liked a lot.

I'll keep an ear on this.

sounds more death metal than expected! reminds me a lot of Dismember. And please, add 'The Resistance' in the topic title if you can...

Meh, pretty by-the-numbers crap if you ask me. Jesper has so much more than this in him.

I enjoyed this actually. Purchased it a couple days ago, and was pleasantly surprised. I'm a huge Stockholm death metal fan so I was shocked. I think there is a larger presence of d-beat and hardcore infused into the Swedish death metal present on this album (Moreso than the usual amount you find), actually quite a lot of enjoyable catchy stuff on this record. Not groundbreaking, and not really any more than middle of the pack but if you love the Stockholm style another good addition with some catchy tracks to be found.

This is actually kind of good. Surprisingly so. It does resemble Dismember's more recent albums, which is a great thing. I'll have to look into this a bit more.

Well, that wasn't half bad. Like Razakel said, pretty by-the-numbers, but it's at least listenable.

That was pretty cool. Nice and thrashy. Yeah the logo sucks and the lyrics are lame, but those can be easily ignored. I'll be checking this out some more for sure.

What Dismember album is this stuff supposed to sound like? Because it sure doesn't sound like any Dismember I've heard. Maybe it sounds a bit like Massive Killing Capacity if you took out the last remnants of cool apocalyptic melodies and overaccentuated the "tough guy" parts in songs like "To the Bone," but even then, that's a stretch. It's like some alternative rock guys who either didn't actually know anything about death metal or had only listened to a few minutes of a Wolverine Blues song as a reference tried to make something that sounded brutal.

Is old school Swedish death metal really nothing more than a guitar sound?

No, not in my experience. It's far more than that.

Unfortunately, the retro-revival seems to think it's catchy riffs, a guitar sound, and fonts that mimic Entombed...

Let me talk about In Flames:

I remember when their first CD came out, the one with the bizarre cover with the chains.

When I talked to local metalheads, the response was "Oh, that Dissection clone band..."

When I went to Wild Rags, the introduction was "This band is pretty cool, they're a Dissection clone but..."

When I played it on the air, people thought it was a Dissection clone.

I still think it's moron music. It has none of the depth of Dissection and was clearly rushed out the door to cash in on that new trend, as the band kept doing with other trends for the next two decades...

Thus it's entirely not surprising if they're ripping off Swedish death metal and trying to palm it off as original. That's their M.O.

Honestly it's better than what I thought it would be. nothing original or special but if i see it for cheap I'd might pick it up.

Well, this is way better than the EP

Agreed, Dismember were the first band that came to my mind when listening to this.

Also, to the dude who questioned if Stromblad ever played death metal, most likely a reference to his time with In Flames, you realize that Stromblad played in Ceremonial Oath, right?

I couldn't really care about Jesper one way or the other but Marco Aro behind vocals on something fast again has me stoked. And best of all it sounds similar to One Kill Wonder.

Song was alright. If we're throwing out Dismember similarities (I'm hearing more general swedeath), then there needs to be some arcane lead to really hook me.

It sounds like the most textbook Swedeath ever crossed with some textbook Gothenburg. I'm okay with that. I'm actually digging this song much more though, with its more melodeath-centric riff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPhcPDdGarw

This band has been in the "news" for well over a year now.

I really think they suck.

Thankfully Jesper left In Flames, you can definitely tell the direction they were going is present in this band. I hope he doesn't go back because I think In Flames sound better than they have in a long time.

i hear the dismember comments, but i was drawn more to the haunted. then i read a bit further down it's the same guy.
it's not too bad, but the hardcore vocal style turns me off. i would've preferred a more typical swedish death metal vocalist. i think this means i just wanted to hear dismember. ha ha ha.

Some of the riffs sound good, while majority are as generic as it gets. I dislike the manner their vocalist uses - tries too hard to sound and look tough. The mellow sounding part at 01:25 is completely out of place. The production judging by this clip is horrible.

middle-of-the-road writing, annoying vocals and overproduced sound

it's too bad bands like these get so much publicity just because they've got some people who used to do something worthwhile ages ago, while more deserving groups fly under the radar without any media connections

Disposable, bland, run-of-the-mill Swedeath from people that should really know better. Considering the line-up present, this should've been killer, but this is far too half-assed to leave an impression. Listenable, yes, but the potential is wasted tremendously.

The riffs in this song definitely bring to mind the faster, less Iron Maiden-influenced riffs on "The God that Never Was" to me. It's not like this album is being marketed as "sounding like Dismember" (at least not from what I have seen), it's only mentioned because Dismember play this style of music too and it's a point of reference.



All death metal has a strong thrash influence...

It warms my heart to see how many people were disappointed that this didn't actually sound like classic Dismember or Entombed. Maybe there's hope for this genre yet.

I'm personally rather bummed that this band just sounds like The Haunted or whatever. It would have been cool if Glenn and Jesper, together again for the first time in ages, had followed up on the power/folk/black sound of Glenn-era In Flames, or the Ceremonial Oath stuff (either album would have been cool), or the early tech/thrash Dimension Zero material. I'm not asking for them to just clone that stuff, mind you, but to build off of it in the same way that newer Autopsy stuff builds off of their older stuff towards new directions (specifically, stuff like that weird melodic midsection on "Broken People" or the extended doom metal jam on "Sadistic Gratification"), or how the new Summoning uses a combination of the medievalism of Dol Guldur and the ambient sound of Oathbound as a launching pad for a new, unique sound.

I don't get that kind of feeling from The Resistance at all. It's just like mid '90s death'n'roll stuff with a bit of Gothenburgy melody thrown in. Nothing really creative or exciting, just cheap groove thrills. I guess Ceremonial Oath is back together again, so maybe we'll have better luck with that project.

You haven't listened to a lot of death metal.

Ah yes, I do now remember hearing all that aggression and crazy energy in a band like PORTAL.

Or maybe I have a different opinion of what death metal is? It's obvious that thrash was the main inspiration for death metal, so it goes without saying that a death metal band (especially an "old school" one) will have some thrash influence.



Maybe if you consider Portal to be death metal, then yes. I'm not interested in that band at all, so naturally I haven't heard much of their music, but what I have heard is definitely not my idea of death metal (or "good" for that matter) by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm not going to bother pointing out how incorrect and wrong you are in assuming all death metal has thrash influence and then to top it off at the very first time someone meantions a death metal band that doesn't you just totally just go and say it's not death metal. Time for a good ol mute cause you can't argue with stupidity.

Truth be told, I have no "pure" death metal bands in my library (the closest, I guess, is Mechina, and they're big on the synthesised orchestra), and maybe I've been listening to far too much melodeath, but this really did not sound like it was "just" death metal to me. In fact, I wouldn't even call it "death with xyz influences". It honestly sounds more to me like "melodic death metal with death metal influence". Maybe just a tinge of hardcore (not just in the vocals). Which is to say that it's good. Definitely not unique, but uncomplicated. Straightforward. To most, that's a drawback, but its simplicity has its strengths. I like it. Not enough to be an add for me, much less a purchase, but then, we'll see what they come up with next, eh?

Fuck though, I've never heard Dissection or The Haunted, so what do I know?

you should know that you should check them both out at least ;p

Darkthrone (1991) - Soulside Journey
At The Gates (1992) - The Red In The Sky Is Ours
Immolation (1991) - Dawn Of Possession

These are just a few albums, that have minimal amount of Thrash Metal elements in them.

I remember reading an interview a while ago with the drummer from Origin talking about how in Origin there would be "no skanky thrash beats"

Pretty sure that's the vocalist from the second haunted album on that track too.

Incantation is pure death metal. Every album.