Review of Facebreaker - Bloodred Hell

Bzzzzzz…goes the buzzsaw. It’s a great sound for tools and an even greater sound for metal. With that said, it’s safe to assume that you’re in store for a dose of fine Swedish death metal. I’ve always enjoyed the old Swedish sound best out of all the various styles of real death metal, and this album reminds me why. Facebreaker brings to mind Bloodbath, both in their approach and the fresh, yet throwback production on the album. Bloodred Hell pays tribute to the greats, such as Grave and early Entombed, without sounding dated at all.

Robert Karlsson (ex-Edge of Sanity grunts and growls his way through eleven tracks of thrashy death violence, atop a mountain of biting riffs and a rumbling, tight rhythm section. On the whole, this is pretty much textbook Swedish death. “The Demon” starts things off in blazing fashion. The riffs are fast, yet thick as molasses, the drumwork is spot-on, and the backing vocals are simply vile (in a good way). “Human Spoil” takes the classic approach by beginning with a nice guttural groan. Once the riffs kick in, it comes off as what Testament would sound like if they moved to Stockholm. “Command of the Dark” charges forward at unrelenting speeds, propelled by the fast feet of Micke. The title track tries to pull one over on you by starting off nice and slow, like a Machine Head song, but don’t be fooled, by the 45-second mark, dissonant death metal riffage drags you back down into the depths. “Crushed” is just pure death/thrash heft, like how Blood Red Throne would sound if they were ever in a good mood. The last really memorable track is “Bringer of Death”, which is a bit thrashier, and belies the slightest amount of old-school hardcore influence.

I could basically have just posted the first paragraph and you’d know what to expect. Facebreaker continues to show that a decade later, Swedes still play the best Swedish death. The sonic energy and malevolence that spew forth from this album more than compensate for its lack of originality. Bloodred Hell is damn good. Less reading, more buying.

Release Details

Facebreaker

Bloodred Hell

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