The Winterlong...

The formative years of death metal were a very interesting time, largely due to the lack of an established rule set for what constituted the sub-genre. It had a pretty cut and dry identity by the early 1990s in Florida and affiliate acts cropping up outside of the USA tended to follow the lead of the original pioneers by balancing out the remnant thrash influences on the style with a heavier, slightly more brutal approach and the occasional progressive quirk. God Macabre fits into a transitional disposition regarding the style's evolution in Sweden, as their sound tends to closely resemble a number of other significant and more prolific prime-movers in the Stockholm scene, while still keeping one foot slightly in the past by taking heavy nods both from Death's early 90s output and their own Swedish fore-bearers Mefisto's mid-80s, Venom and Hellhammer inspired mishmash of black and speed metal.

The advent of 2014 and the help of Relapse Records has afforded a unique opportunity for newcomers to the Swedish death metal sound to get a fuller picture of what God Macabre was. With the re-release of their lone LP The Winterlong... it is now possible to experience the Consumed By Darkness EP that the band had previously released under the moniker of Macabre End, offering up a listening experience that feels a bit more complete, and also including an unreleased song in “Life's Verge” that further bolsters the whole. The production quality varies a bit between the original seven songs that lead off the list and the additional four, but overall the feel of things is very consistent and definitely proves to entice the ears of anyone looking for a bare-bones, traditional death metal beating.

The most striking thing about the album is it's heavy reliance on nuance and atmosphere to establish a setting of fear and dread. When only accounting for the odds and ends of the guitars, bass, drums and vocals, most of this album tends to come off as a heavily Death influenced album that takes a fair share of nods from Leprosy and arguably a few from Human. Deep end riffs and beats that jump back and forth from a doom-laden, trudging crawl to a biting thrash edge, while the guttural barks of Per Boder dig a bit deeper and nastier than Chuck Schuldiner and come closer to David Vincent during Morbid Angel's formative years at around the same time. The lead guitar work reaches back prior to the Hanneman vs. King worship that was popularized by Deicide and Cannibal Corpse, leaning a bit more closely to something along an organized, shred happy re-interpretation of a mid-80s thrash soloing style.

The use of haunting timbres and slow developing harmonies results in a series of songs that are, for all intents and purposes, fairly similar sounding and methodical. It doesn't quite rise to the level of listening like a concept album, but it gets pretty close to it at times. The occasional employment of keyboards, atmospheric sounds and occasional ballad sections steers things into a creepy story book format, and the thudding character of most of the standard songs on here is tempered with a nuanced mixture of older metal influences and melodic consonance out of the guitars. For all of the nastiness heard on “Into Nowhere”, “Spawn Of Flesh” and “In Grief”, there are occasional moments of pristine beauty, largely when things slow to a crawl and the keyboards fill the arrangement, to speak nothing for the nostalgic character of the instrumental “Lamentation” which essentially leaves the death metal style entirely for its two and a half minute duration.

While arguably one of the important bands in the development of Sweden's death metal scene, God Macabre tend to be passed over by many. This probably owes greatly to their lack of studio output beyond this single LP and the small body of work that preceded it under the Macabre End name, though one shouldn't discount the band's musical conservatism, which leans heavily towards the late 80s Florida sound and might be interpreted as too thrash inspired to qualify as true death metal compared to what currently constitutes the term. It is definitely a crime that this band has not received more attention, but since they have recently reformed, some additional studio output might serve to remedy this a bit. Hopefully there is a future for this band beyond being a touring act, because The Winterlong... is one nice chunk of Swedish goodness.

Originally submitted to (The Metal Observer) on July 21, 2014.