Nailed

Back in 1990, Filthy Christians released "Mean", a record that combined a grinding style of Swedish hardcore with thrash and death metal elements, and this to varying results, in my opinion. The album had some totally ripping tracks on it, but wasn't consistent enough in its entirety to really convince throughout. Some four years later the band tried again, this time pulling the Swedish death metal card full-on, resulting in this here "Nailed" EP.

So yeah, the band decided to steer the horse straight into the dark and putrid woods where bands such as Uncanny, Entombed, Furbowl and Carbonized roam. The crusty kängpunk influences are purged from the band's sound for most part, with only some faint traces remaining around the edges, and this in favor of that more than familiar buzzsaw guitar sound. The growling vocals bring to mind Dismember's Matti Karki, while the mutated heavy metal riffs are brought with power and urgency, underpinned by a straight-forward uptempo percussive attack with the occasional blastbeat thrown in. The tracks get midtempo parts woven through them, making good use of those typical haunting guitar melodies that come straight from the Entombed book on 'How to Death Metal', with some way above decent guitar leads spliced in, with the solo in "Thoughts" having a pretty gnarly Morbid Angel vibe to it. When Filthy Christians let go of the gas, like in the beginning of the title track and in the middle part of "Thoughts", there comes the influence of early Black Sabbath creeping in, providing a good balance between fast and slow, adding variation to great effect. The production keeps a solid balance between the different components of the music, sounding heavy, with even the bass coming through, although it could maybe used just that bit more pizzazz to it, but that's just a detail I wanted to whine about, because it all sounds fine enough, really.

But while the music delivers the goods no doubt, at the same time it needs to be said that the band is far from the most original act on the block. Especially in 1994, when a lot of the Swedish vanguard where looking beyond the boundaries of the genre (usually with so-and-so results, in my opinion), Filthy Christians were exuding this 'Entombed and Dismember's little brother' vibe. There is nothing here that has never been heard well before the previous five years, and it gives this EP the feeling that it has come late to the party in a way. The music is by no means bad, but it's a style that would shortly following this EP be swept into the background in favor of Norwegian black metal and that abomination that is death 'n' roll (shudder!).

I'm going to go so far as to say that the band fares better playing pure Swedeath than they did the amalgam of crust, grind and thrash/death they offered on "Mean". Original it isn't, which is no crime in my book, but it still manages to deliver a pretty decent dose of Swedish style old school death metal, and a good deal above average at that, so if that's what makes your Jimmy jangle, this one comes pretty recommended.