I've avoided listening to much of Coldworker's output, as I suspect have many Nasum fans who are - not displeased by Anders Jakobson's new project so much as unwilling to face the disappointment when it doesn't match up to the rightly-revered Nasum. Now that a line-up of Nasum is planning on getting back together and touring as a final farewell (memory of Mieszko Talarczyk dominant in the band's mind as much as fans') it seems a good opportunity to finally lay the tragic memory of Nasum to rest and to follow Jakobson in his new project.

Coldworker is now three albums in, and The Doomsayer's Call seems to move away from Nasum's furious intensity towards a more death metal style, clearly influenced to an extent by doom with the solemn ominous atmosphere conjured by some of the riffs and the surprisingly melodic soloing in opening track A New Era. For the most part there's more than enough blasting to keep grindheads happy, the punkish rhythms of the likes of The Reprobate quite Napalm Death-y in tone. There's plenty of the furious deathgrind violence that you'd expect, but as Vacuum Fields shows the band also have a taste for the epic, and like to throw in little technical bells and whistles to make your headbanging impressed rather than mindless.

So, Swedish grind plus British death sums the band up quite well. With a membership roster which includes some small names of the scene, most notably Anders Bertilsson (ex-The Project Hate MCMXCIX) this is anything but a supergroup. Indeed, one of the band's few faults has to be vocalist Joel Fornbrant, whose deep growl works well with the music but can make it seem rather monotonous through lack of variety. Which would be a shame, as there is genuine variety on show in the songwriting, the catchy crunching grooves of The Glass Envelope contrasting well with Living And Suffering's speedy blasts, and the likes of Pessimist are brutal and engaging enough to keep the listener engrossed. I can't compare The Doomsayer's Call to past Coldworker outings, but having heard this will definitely be checking said albums out. The Doomsayer's Call is certainly a solid, skilfully-constructed deathgrind album that will appeal to a variety of death metal fans.