Soulreaper - Written in Blood (2000)

After the demise of Dissection in '97 due to Jon Nödtveidt's accomplice to murder conviction, guitarist Johan Norman and drummer Tobias Kellgren quickly formed a new band with bassist Mikael Lång, vocalist Christoffer Hjertén and rhythm guitarist Christoffer Hermansson. Initially the band went under the simple name of Reaper, but due to another band already using it the band became Soulreaper, which is obviously one of Dissection's most classic songs.

The bands debut, 'Written in Blood' is a fiery explosion of old school sounding death metal quite similar to early Morbid Angel with some occasional moments of Dissection-ish black metal melodicism. Although more uptempo than say MA's, 'Blessed are the Sick' or 'Covenant,' it still feels like the gloomy yet aggressive style of Trey Azagthoth is all over this beast, while the slower songs and parts almost sound like rips from that record. The vocals generally stick to a raspier style, honestly not too different from Mr. David Vincent's, with only a few moments of lower growliness.

What makes the album a bit interesting are the parts that have riffs that sound like left overs from, 'Storm of the Light's Bane,' and Tobias' drum rolls sound remarkably vibrant and similar in style to Ole Öhman's work on said album. Curiously the song, 'Satanized' is a cover version of an old Nödtveidt project from '91, which was originally also covered in '96 by Decameron, which three of the members of Soulreaper played in at various points.

So, obviously Soulreaper didn't cover much new ground with this album, but despite all that its an exceptional affair of blasting death metal that clocks in at just a little over thirty five minutes. The music is hostile, energetic and totally headbangable, while the overall musicianship is highly impressive. The production is hollow and massive with plenty of echo to it, which in particular makes the drums sound explosive and dynamic, which is just how I prefer drums to be in death metal.

Soulreaper would release a split and EP in '02 and one final album in '03 called, 'Life Erazer,' which I've been told is slightly better. Since these days Tobias hasn't done much other than playing on one Wolf album, two albums with Seventh One around the time Soulreaper quit and some brief live work with In Flames in '05. Whereas Johan completely disappeared after disbanding, but reappeared in recent years with both Deletion and Trident.