Morbus Chron - Sleepers in the Rift (2011)

I suppose it all goes back to bands like Repugnant and Bloodbath, musicians and fans alike who felt the Swedish Death Metal scene was ultimately nearing its end. As such, both bands were formed in the late 90's as a means of bringing back that classic Swedish Death Metal sound of Entombed, Grave and Dismember. Scene founders and legends, but all of which had either drastically morphed in personnel and sound (Entombed), broken up (Grave) or just plain lost their steam (Dismember). A decade or so later and with several releases behind these rejuvenating sonic deathmongers something began to arise, a new scene, some like to call it, 'The new wave of old school death metal,' I like to call it 'A dream come true!'

Morbus Chron from Stockholm, Sweden is one such band formed in 2007 taking the best parts of 80's Death and Autopsy as their main influences. Each song offers up hard hitting hair swirling head banging thrashy riffs played in absolutely the dirtiest old school twisted manner imaginable, intermingled with some mid-paced and just plain slow creeping crawling deathly ill doomy parts. Toss in some hair raising solos, solid drumming and one of sickest old school screamers around and you've essentially got Morbus Chron.

The leads in some of these songs are just insane, so much energy and passion, and the then the shifts to slower paces come so naturally with nothing sounding forced or out of place at all. Special attention must be given to Robert Andersson's vocal performance as he channels the long lost hellish howls of 'Scream Bloody Gore' era Chuck Schuldiner so effortlessly and I'm almost tempted to say he takes it to the next level with his long winded shrieks, cries and agonizing roars. The sense of morbidity mixed with some humor is great too, I mean come on, 'Coughing in a Coffin' & 'Dead Body Pile Necrophile' are such great song titles. Really, I must be honest, I find very little fault with this nine song thirty four minute debut.

Ultimately, this has proven to be an album that just doesn't get boring for me, because frankly if I had the talent to play, its pretty much exactly what I'd want to create. More simply put though, if you like 80's death metal, you're going to want to pick up, 'Sleepers in the Rift.' Fan-fucking-tastic.