Miasmal

I wonder if Miasmal will ever call their new release different than “Miasmal”? They already have the self-titled demo, EP and now they also called their debut album like that! Not very smart, if you ask me, because surely it will cause some problems and confusion, like “hey, I wanna buy “Miasmal”… yeah, but which one???”. Fuck that, I already have the demo on vinyl in my collection and when the debut full length was released back in 2011 by the great Detest Records (ROT IN FILTH!!!!!!!) I also quickly purchased a copy of this black tar. Such releases are just necessary to have and I definitely do not regret spending some money on it, as I’m happy to announce that Miasmal kept the quality from their demo also on their first album. Sure, some will probably moan that Miasmal is not bringing anything new or special to the genre and really they’re not different to some other Swedish bands, but who would give a fuckin' fuck about such opinions, as they don’t matter if the music is as good as the one on “Miasmal” LP? If you don’t like it, then please jump into that fuckin' black hole on the front cover of the album and kill yourself.

I did enjoy “Miasmal” (both demo and the LP actually) a lot. I mean this is one of those albums, which will stick with you without any problems, right from the first listen and it doesn't require vaseline or soap to get to your ass and seriously fuck and kick it hard. Having in my mind what bands like Death Breath, Maim or Bastard Priest did before I can honestly say that Miasmal is equally killer and easily fits the same category of bands. And when I listen to “Miasmal” I have a feeling like those bands actually managed to create something different… sure, their music is based on the good, old Swedish death metal scene with bands like Entombed, Nihilist, Carnage and Dismember, but when I hear “Miasmal” I feel like there’s something more to it than just a brainless copy of “Left Hand Path”. The songwriting is excellent, obviously, but Miasmal used so much D-beat that sometimes it may appear like crust punk / hardcore has influenced the band just as much as the death metal sound. And listen to the guitar leads on this album! I mean they’re nowhere like the melodic playing from “Like an Ever Flowing Stream”! They almost have sort of rock’n’roll / punky feeling. Of corpse the whole stuff has been played in the death metal way, don’t get me wrong; it is obscure, morbid and filthy, old school death metal, but it doesn't limit the influence just to the certain one or two bands. Here Wolfpack is equally important as Entombed!

It’s impossible to find really any mistakes or anything wrong about “Miasmal”. The songwriting is excellent, I like the way Miasmal structured their songs and how they add some extras into them, like more melodic leads (yeah, those also appear) in songs like the excellent “Blissful Cannonades”. And “Mists” will remind you that all in all Miasmal is a Swedish death metal band – I totally love the beginning of this song; a short acoustic theme, then the melodic riff alike the good old Entombed… Well, I’m in hell! This is also why “Mists” is my favorite song from the whole LP. And in the final part of the last song, “Chronicles”, they even dared to use some keyboards as the background fill up for the killer doomy riff. Love it! But really, as I already written, there’s no bad song on the album and I devoured the whole LP easily. Definitely this stuff belongs to the best albums, which have been released during this old school death metal plague, which has been infecting us since a couple of years. Live to rot!

Standout tracks: “Mesmerized”, “Blissful Cannonades”, “Mists”

Everytime I come across another new band playing old school Swedish death metal, I think that okay, this time I won’t score it that high, now it’s time to bash a vapid clone. But after giving Miasmal’s eponymoys debut a few spins, there’s no way I could rate it poorly, even if it isn’t among my favourites when it comes to the 2000s revival of the Swedish phenomenom.

This is mostly due to the production that lacks the asphyxiating, morbid and death reeking atmosphere of, say, the recent Interment debut. The sound is quite huge but also muffled and warm, which is something I wouldn’t prefer to hear on an album of this kind. But what comes to the compositional work here, Miasmal rocks: not with originality (huh!) but with kick ass riffs that are churned with good taste throughout the 38-minute whole that says nothing on the first go, but after a few listens starts to grab better. ”Equinox 432” is probably my favourite of the slew, attacking with great riffage that culminates into a semi-melodic peak towards the end. ”Mists” is another piece worth mentioning here as it briefly introduces some haunting acoustic guitars into the mix.

In addition to the eight track album, there are six tracks more from the band’s back-catalogue on the CD version. I prefer the less careful sound production on these demo and EP songs, though the actual songs aren’t as grabbing as the Miasmal full-length pieces. But, all in all, an old school death metal fan won’t lose anything if he/she invests into Miasmal that not only offers a full-length of good stuff, but also a shitload of solid extra material. As with all the other albums in this field, it’s hard to be create a true masterpiece, but Miasmal surely does its job admirably, nonetheless.

3 / 5
[ http://www.vehementconjuration.com/ ]

I really enjoyed Miasmal’s EP from last year, and I was actually quite dreading to give this album a real listen. I had briefly heard a bit of the album (although a ripped CD-version, downloaded by a friend) and felt rather disappointed actually. But when the moment came and I couldn’t put it off any longer I quickly realized this is the shit. Don’t know if it was the case of a bad rip or what, but I can tell you that the tunes definitely come to life on vinyl, and once again I get proof that it’s still the superior music format.

I think it was the third time around that I gave the album a listen that I felt an epiphany, one that definitely changed my view of thought about Miasmal. It was the opening track, Mesmerized, that did it, and I came to the conclusion that this is what Wolfpack would’ve sounded if they had taken their metallized crust sound to an purer death metal level. The early releases of said band (Bloodstained dreams, A new dawn fades and Hellhound warpig) are to me still some of the best crust to ever have been spawned, and they carried a deeply metal-influenced sound. In many ways it feels like Miasmal is doing somewhat the opposite, and instead of having their crust influenced by death metal they’ve got their death metal influenced by crust, and in many ways they feel like a death metal version of Wolfpack.

But of course it’s not the entire truth, seeing as these here lads have got even more nuances to their sound. The following track, Equinox 432, carries a more pure Stockholm old school sound, drawing early Dismember and of course Nihilist to mind. And fast-forward about 2½ minutes in to hear an utterly powerful moment of percussive work, bombastic and insanely creepy, and for some reason drawing Counterblast to mind (but I think it’s just ‘cause of the same kind of wickedly heavy atmosphere created by percussion). Mists opens up with an acoustic guitar, reminding me a whole lot of Unanimated, pre-reunion. And there are a whole lot of comparisons to be made, if one would really dissect the album. But what’s most important here is Miasmal’s slick way of mixing the typical Swedish old school sound with crustcore and semi-filthy Autopsy styled death into a seamless mesh.

The quality of riffing is throughout the album insanely high, and they show off a knack for fast death solos, slick leads and catchy punky main-riffing. The drum-work is also incredibly impressive. Not for the sake of being overly technical, progressive or whatnot, but for the simply wicked patterns, often raising the songs to an even higher level of mastery. Vocally it’s a dark and powerful voice, not too gruffy, but commanding the lyrics to hammer its way into your mind. It all comes together in a way that never stops to impress me, and I feel I could recommend this to pretty much anyone into death metal, and even a whole lot of crusties not generally fond of the style. The production is supreme in its manner of having the guitar sound so sharp and heavy, the bass so pummeling brutal, the drumming so clean and the vocals so powerful. A few twists and surprises keeps you nailed, and this looks to be one of the best albums of 2011.

My copy is the LP-version (as mentioned earlier I prefer this format), but for those of you looking to catch up on what the band’s previously released the CD-version contains both their demo and the EP as a bonus. I guess you should buy ‘em both. As a conclusion I just wanna say this is fucking awesome, and I wonder if their next release is gonna be self-titled as well.

Originally written for My Last Chapter

It sucks to have to constantly chew the soles off my boots, but these Swedish old school wannabes are so persistent in reliving and recapturing the copious evils of their influences that I am, on a near weekly basis, forced to reconsider my exhaustion with such efforts and then firmly plant the footwear into my maw. Miasmal is one such case, sure to join the ranks of Bastard Priest, Tribulation and Tormented as one of the best that metallic nation has had to offer us via the 21st century that it hadn't offered us 20 years ago. For a debut album, this has just about everything you'd expect of the style: driving d-beat rhythms, insidious bursts of hideous agony, and a dire and oppressive atmosphere which feels like a mouthwash of grave dirt.

I've already reviewed this band's 2010 EP, which was also self-titled, and those two tracks: "Creation of Fire" and "Bionic Godhead Erase" are included with this package, along with their 2008 demo, ALSO self-titled, so you're getting quite a nice collection here of all that Miasmal wanted you to hear up to the present. Coincidentally, it's all pretty flush in both mix and song quality, so in effect you can listen straight through and stay reasonably absorbed without the usual interruption of 'hey, this sounds like crap, what happened?' that other full-length/demo mixes often suffer. It also helps that there are no redundancies, all of the tracks are unique to their original incarnations and remain so here.

The true strength of Miasmal must not come from originality, but the fact that they know precisely how to write their goddamn songs, setting appropriate moods to offset their turgid velocity. "Mesmerized" opens like a rampant war stomp, picking up into the expected energy of reliable d-beat death & roll ala Entombed or Desultory, and then seasoning with dour melodies. Several tracks intensify the inherent brutality, like "Equinox 432" and the grinding, all devouring "Toxic Beed". Others like "Mists" counterbalance the onslaught with a measured, haunting atmosphere, created through clean guitars across the backdrop of sodden chords and then escalating into the fluid pummeling of their environs. Most importantly, though, this is a band who can write a good, halfway creative lick, and you'll find these peppered through fare like "Chronicles", "Bionic Godhead Erase" and others with enough frequency that you'll simply never doze off through the entire experience (even the bonus content).

With its great packaging, 14 tracks of fairly consistent strength and a dark, authentic energy coursing through its veins, Miasmal is surely one of the better retrograde Swedish death metal albums I've heard in recent months. It's not perfect, as a lot of the core rhythms bear a familiar feel to them, but its fresher than a lot of other bands attempting to dig into the same tomb, and worth the investment if you're a sucker for the style; perhaps even if you're new to it...

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com