Dismember - Like an Ever Flowing Stream (1991)

After Michael Amott accepted an offer to play in Carcass and thus disbanded, Carnage, Fred Estby, David Blomqvist and Matti Kärki reformed Dismember who had previously only lasted a year and during which they unleashed the 'Dismembered' and 'Last Blasphemies' demo tapes in the late 80's. Starting with the 'Reborn in Blasphemy' tape in August of 1990, Dismember was soon joined by Richard Cabeza and Robert Sennebäck and in March of 1991 in Sunlight Studios one of the most classic and best examples of Swedish Death Metal was recorded, namely, 'Like an Ever Flowing Stream.'

Continuing where Entombed began a year earlier, 'Like an Ever Flowing Stream' had far more aggression, speed, flow and just overall brutalism, which eclipsed, 'Left Hand Path,' though my love for both albums still remains equal. Opening with the sounds of rain and a distant but impending thunderous doom, 'Override Of The Overture' ceremoniously announces Dismembers inclusion to the death metal realm with this pummeling headbanging beast of an opener. The raw chainsaw guitar tone is fully in place here as well its quite simply a perfect example of the Sunlight Studios production from start to finish.

Dismember in '91: Death Metal Murderers

The album blasts onwards with songs like, 'Soon to be Dead' & 'Bleed for Me,' though in particular I'm quite fond of 'Dismembered' and 'Skin her Alive' with their over the top brutality and speed, which was unheard of within the Swedish Death Metal scene at the time. 'Sickening Art' and the 8th and final song, 'In Death's Sleep' are equally powerful, in fact I just love the ominous lead in the middle of the former, while the latter starts out slowly, almost doom-ish with a spoken part, but builds and builds with a beautiful solo to eventually a pulverizing death metal number. The re-release of the album also has four bonus tracks, which I guess were simply extra songs, but one of them happens to be, 'Torn Apart,' which is an old Carnage song. Personally I still enjoy the original Carnage version best, but there's no denying this cover-ish version of it either.

The flow and drive behind this album is really something. From Matti's guttural roars to Fred's relentless blasting energy on the drums and of course David, Richard and Robert's riff work is immaculate, skilled, barbarous, headbangable and even epic at times, 'Like an Ever Flowing Stream' is simply awesome!

The album and its lyrics are also a subject of offensive material, at least in '91 the British customs office thought so after opening a package from Nuclear Blast and being grossly offended by the band photos, song titles and lyrical content. Eventually in the summer of '92 the band appeared before a judge in England, charged with spreading obscene material, but the judge soon realized how absurd the whole case was and Dismember was released from all charges, but their video was banned from TV, because of the bloody content.

Over twenty years later and 'Like an Ever Flowing Stream' is still by far one of the finest gems to come out of the Swedish Death Metal scene as well as just simply a masterpiece of death metal. No second is wasted, no part of this record is boring. Dismember created death metal perfection with this one. A must own.