Bloodhunt

To me, Centinex was introduced via this EP back in 2000. Yes, I know, I came in late, but like everybody knows, better later than... I remember the cool cover art perfectly fitting to the rabid death metal found inside, which is infused with black metal's cold fire. I felt like I was overrun by a tank, but also felt fucking alive! I guess I felt just fine. How I do feel now, two decades later?

I feel just fucking fine. Better, actually! 21+ minutes of six songs resulted in entirely marvellous slice of Swedish death metal. With this EP, Centinex strengthened their black metal affection. The band's familiar, albeit not native, use of shearing, tremolo riffing became a bit sharper, while not losing their death metal muscle. The sound is definitely more grating, echoing and cold, than previously. Still, there's lower tractor-esque power chord playing to crush anything in front of it.

The theme of the EP is destruction by warring. The pace is mostly fast or blasting-fast, with machine-gunning riffs. There really isn't many mid-paced parts. Centinex managed to come up with catchy riffing and several melodies here. The vibe is evil, attacking, but also as it is Swedish death metal, in some weird way, melancholic at times. It's like "this is the end" vibe, I guess. The vocals are croaked and shouted growl, with some shrieking in it. This EP is musically perfect.

Here, the band still utilized a bloody drum machine. They hardly had slaughtered their earlier stuff with that disco music device, and it sounds surprisingly organic, so samples and programming are good and well done. Only some cymbals sound weak, but that's not due to sample quality.

The cover reads "dark Swedish death", and what that's exactly what 'Bloodhunt' is, but it is also a totally essential piece of Swedish death metal history. Go get rolled over, and still you want more of the same...

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com)

Any line up change, of vocalist especially, will always be difficult for any band. With this 1999 minialbum CENTINEX presented two new musicians, Johan Jansson – vocals and Jonas Kjellgren – guitars (still no drummer in the line up though – was it really so damn hard to get someone in this bloody Sweden back then to play some cool death metal shit??). “Bloodhunt” brought also another important change, as CENTINEX decided to try completely new studio, moving to Avesta and visiting BLACK LOUNGE Studios for the first (not the last though) time in their career. Luckily all these changes didn’t do the band any harm as this material is equally strong and furious as the previous “Reborn Through Flames” killer CD.

Personally I had some worries with the new studio – the previous switch for the ABYSS was a mistake in my opinion and the comeback to SUNLIGHT (for "Reborn Through Flames" CD) was more than welcome - just listen to “Reborn...” again and judge yourself how strong this album's production is. Luckily BLACK LOUNGE came up with good sound, the one which actually helps the songs to be even more aggressive and angry and that’s what I want! It's maybe little bit too raw, but surely they did get the real essence of Swedish death / black metal in it!

And so the feast kicks off with “Under the Pagan Glory”, damn vicious and fast bastard that combines everything I like about CENTINEX – powerful and catchy melody with aggression and massive wall of sound – and the furious screaming of Jansson. There are some almost heavy metal influenced riffs in it at the end, what reminds me DECAMERON and A CANOROUS QUINTET a little, but better performed. “For Centuries Unfold” doesn’t even try to soft the music as it carries on with great melodic mid tempo riffage and “Luciferian Moon” is even faster and more violent, but again with some hints of classic metal in it.

I kind of noticed that CENTINEX has shortened their songs a bit, as only one of the six tracks goes for over four minutes, but in my opinion it only helps them to be more violent and straight forward. Just like the title track is or that fast fucker “The Conquest Infernal”, which is probably the fastest and most striking song on the “Bloodhunt”. The impression, while listening to this MCD, is that the music is sometimes more black than death metal (“Like Darkened Storms” being maybe the best example for that), with the slight influence of classic metal structures, but all played in the typical Swedish melodic style known from the late 90’s bands like VINTERLAND or A CANOROUS QUINTET. Yeah, the songs may be very similar to each other, but with only 20 minutes of music, “Bloodhunt” doesn’t get boring and really is a pleasurable experience... another one in this band’s discography.