This really is true death metal, and I mean D.E.A.T.H. M.E.T.A.L. !! Everything this style of music produced after 1666 seems to be to new for this band, it's so bloody old school...and that's fucking good!
You mean, death metal started in 1984 and not 340+ years before? Well yeah, let's say it's the kind of death metal that was played til 1992, especially in Sweden. So this means, bands like Carnage and Grave come to mind, of course also very early Death, Autopsy and Asphyx. Entombed might already have been too melodic.
The sound is pretty low and downtuned, however, not so exaggerated as with rather modern US bands such as Disgorge, you can pretty much hear everything they play. It's just dark and heavy, like our beloved Autopsy and Grave used to have it.
The riffing is rather simple, and the solos are even more simple, if there are any at all. Most of the songs will feature a short one or a leading melody, but it will never turn out to be some super fast technical stuff. It's for the song and its atmosphere, not for the ego of the guitarist!
Pummeling drums like huge hammers on rocks, but once again not very technical and also no blast beats.
The vocals are deep and mighty grunts. I personally would like them to be a bit more vomity (Chris Reifert anybody?), but they still fit the music very well.
Drowned have been around for many years and there have been some demos and a 7" before that might have featured other kinds of death metal. Well, you just have to take a look at the list of former members and the changes in style will be easy to understand. They seem to have a stable line-up now, and these guys really mean and know what they are doing! This is true old school death metal for the true old school death metal fan. If you love such music, you will love this. If you don't, then this has not been made for you!