The Winterlong...

I’m not going to lie you that I’ve been knowing God Macabre since their demo times or something. Fuck, no, I was only 11 when they’ve released it, so I had no idea about this band at that time. It wasn’t until the late 90’s, when I’ve probably heard of this Swedish band for the first time and when someone taped me their album… and well, being a huge fan of the bands from this damn country I also loved God Macabre instantly. This phenomenon called Swedish death metal seemed like never ending, with so many amazing bands and albums and “The Winterlong” quickly became one of my real favourites, even though the band have never really achieved a position and status the bands like Grave, Dismember or Desultory had. A real shame, but no one should be surprised, as the label, which released the album originally, Mangled Beyond Recognition, haven’t done anything in order to help God Macabre in their “career”. And also to get the first pressing CD of “The Winterlong” is basically impossible and would cost a fortune, luckily Repulse has re-released this album, adding “Consumed by Darkness” EP as a bonus, while Blood Harvest Records should get a Noble prize for this awesome vinyl edition, which I’ve been looking for for some time and finally managed to buy one.

The way “The Winterlong” is constructed is quite weird. First of all, it’s relatively short album, going for about 28 minutes only, which is not much. And there are only seven tracks, of which two are instrumental, so at the first look one may have a feeling of dealing with an incomplete album. Definitely it would be great to hear maybe two or three songs more, but this is also why it’s great that the re-release version has those three tracks from the EP added, so the album is longer and more complete.

The musical value of “The Winterlong” is indisputable. God Macabre has composed some of the most thrilling and killer death metal tunes within the Swedish sound. It is infectiously melodic and possessing, I can honestly say that God Macabre managed to blend this atmospheric, dark side with the aggressive and relentless playing in one of the most effective ways ever. Of course it is disputable whether there’s anything what would distinguish their music from some other Swedish bands – and I also mean the production values here – but I can tell you one thing: yes, God Macabre sounds very close to few other bands from their country, but they also share a certain quality, which putted certain high standards in this scene. For the bands, which I can compare the music from “The Winterlong” I would definitely need to mention the likes of Carnage, Gorement, Cemetery, Desultory, Excruciate, Tiamat, Epitaph, Utumno and Necrophobic. All those acts play in very similar way and for instance the thing, which God Macabre has in common with Tiamat would be those guitar melodic leads, which both bands used so often (this is also where you can really spot how similar the guitars sound!). Take the “Teardrops” instrumental for example and see yourself if it would fit „Astral Sleep” album hehe. Otherwise songs like “Ashes of Mourning Life” and “Into Nowhere” are ravaging, classic Swedish beasts, which attack with straight forward riffing and which sound closer to the likes of Carnage, Desultory, Gorement, Necrophobic (first album) and Epitaph. There’s lots of dynamics, great harmonies, the riffs are catchy and aggressive and the vocals of Per Boder are standard death metal grunts, sort of similar to what you can hear on the early Hypocrisy albums. Sometimes I have a feeling like Boder could have growled in more emotional, expressive and effective ways – like in “Lost” when he screams “Fuck Jesus Christ”, it sounds rather flat like he just asked someone for a sandwich, not like the most blasphemous sentence of the whole album, you know? But he’s done an OK job anyway, I like his voice I can tell.

Ufff, listening to this album is still an amazing experience; it just doesn’t get boring at all. It doesn’t matter how many times have I listened to it, I still get thrilled by it and those amazing riffs give me gooseskin. And it doesn’t matter if it sometimes sounds like another band, it definitely isn’t a disadvantage, because as I already said, “The Winterlong” holds a certain quality, which many other bands would envy. It surely is one of my top 5 albums of all times in the death metal scene from Sweden! The highlights of the album for me personally are “Lost”, “Teardrops”, “In Grief”, “Into Nowhere”, but to be honest none of those tracks have bad moments, there are no fillers, even this acoustic instrumental “Lamentation” has its place on the album. Also having the EP songs on this vinyl is something I am very happy about, they’re brilliant, although they sound much more rough and cruel, with some similarities to Crematory for instance, so it’s awesome. So please check this album out and see yourself, why was God Macabre one of the best Swedish bands ever.