Through Realms Unseen

The small world of Swedish old school death metal must be extremely crowded, since several entire countries have attempted to squeeze into Stockholm to join the likes of Entombed, Grave, and Carnage. Pertaining to Entrapment, at least the Netherlands could be counted as proximate to Sweden, though that's to overlook the global obsession with the style at the moment. This crew, usually made up of only Michel Jonker in the studio, caught my attention with a potent debut a few years ago and Through Realms Unseen remains Entrapment's latest contribution to filling up that little Swedeath world as much as possible. Though not entirely based on the same sounds as the extremely competent but derivative The Obscurity Within..., this third full-length still relies on Dismember and Grave for its bread and butter moments, while a creeping nastiness utilizes some unsavoury ideas from countrymen Asphyx. If you still feel turned on by thunderously heavy death metal, you'd better keep an eye on your pants to make sure things don't get out of control while you listen to this.

As expected, a fat guitar tone was Jonker's first priority here and his second was to lay down some riffs that sound like an avalanche is tearing its way down a mountain towards your puny dwelling in order to bury you alive like the figure on the cover. When the pace hots up for 'Ruination', a minor thrash influence rears its head and, if you weren't listening to that deep, groovy guitar tone (sorry, it's the '60s in my head today), you may be able to convince yourself that it was a Slayer song. Mostly, you won't be able to make that mistake, the gravelly crush pertaining specifically to the narrow influences, although creeping passages head into death doom waters as a result of an added dose of wretched melody. Truth be told, I didn't expect a song called 'Dominant Paradigm' to remind me fleetingly of My Dying Bride, nor to marry that kind of austerity to whammy bar shredding so soon afterwards. But that's just my narrow mind I guess.

Whatever the case with my puzzled expectations, Entrapment's sound certainly encompasses the underground sound of the early '90s, which I'm very much in favour of. Compared to the debut, I feel that a noticeable shift has been made to incorporate more melody into the main riffs of the songs, which previously featured only in the leads, while the dark guitar and bass tones allow Jonker to edge into catchy territory without losing any of the heaviness. On the other hand, the leads fall short for me, since they formed such an atmosphere on The Obscurity Within... and here seem to have taken a backward step to provide chaotic relief from the pounding grooves. I wouldn't turn up on Jonker's doorstep to take a shit exactly, but I'm disappointed that my favourite feature of Entrapment's sound has been dialled back so extremely.

Nevertheless, Through Realms Unseen wouldn't countenance being called poor. With 11 swift songs, plenty of scope exists to choose preferences, while a 40 minute running time also ensures that boredom is kept at bay. The Paradise Lost fan in me wants to say that the title track is my outright favourite (I hear the same kind of lead tone as Gothic had, plus the slow riffing forms intriguing shapes), but I admit that 'Omission' sets out the stall well with a more developed structure than other tracks and 'Discordant Response' does ugly things with an At the Gates riff that shouldn't lead as well as it does into a warmly glowing solo. On that last song, Jonker also proves that he hasn't lost the use of his creative drumming skills from his days in Massive Assault. The Dutchman once again proves that he can produce competent songs with small glimmers of originality, though I don't feel completely entertained from start to finish when listening to Through Realms Unseen.