Soulreaper have done it again! Those of you familiar with my somewhat recent review of Soulreaper’s 2000 debut, Written In Blood, will know that I thought very highly of Soulreaper’s brand of Death Metal and nothing from this new release, Life Erazer, changes that reality, in fact, it enhances it. Brutally intense and unrelenting, Soulreaper show no signs of slowing down or dropping in quality anytime soon.

The overall sound of Soulreaper is still very much the same, however, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to state that on Life Erazer the atmospheric portion of Dissection shows up more often than it did on Written In Blood; there were even times where I thought I was listening to The Somberlain. At its heart, this band is still very much Death Metal, which, just like on Written In Blood, can’t be pointed towards just one or two bands for influences. Of course you have Dissection as a main influence, then there is some early Morbid Angel, God Dethroned, and even Monstrosity in Soulreaper’s sound (among others) and the end result is vaguely familiar, but still fresh. Likewise, and much to my liking, the songs on Life Erazer aren’t one big blast fest. Each track is cleverly structured with neck breaking double bass, fast drum runs, mid-paced double bass, and constant fills. The speed and precision of the drums goes hand in hand with the guitar playing which keeps perfect time and sometimes blazes by so fast, it’s easy to miss the little intricacies. More so than on their last release, Soulreaper do slow down for some Dissection inspired dark atmospheric riffage on occasion and this lends itself to a varied listen that does not tire easily.

Once again the production is almost flawless. Everything is mixed at the right level and the guitar tone helps give the band that added atmosphere to the brutality displayed. The vocals haven’t changed much except for some very interesting and completely unexpected clean vocals on two tracks. They are best used on Static Darkness which is one of the slower tracks, but also probably the heaviest. The style employed has a strong Doom Metal feel, also due in part to the guitar used behind the vocals in that particular track. While the varied harsh vocals that include everything from growls to screams definitely get the job done, the clean vocals were a nice addition and perhaps we’ll hear some more of them in the future. On a side note, the phrasing is improved since Written In Blood, as there are a lot of catchy vocal lines on almost every song especially with Godless Of Reaper Of Souls. Moreover, the more I listen to Soulreaper the more I hear the God Dethroned style of phrasing, which is a good thing because vocal wise, God Dethroned is one of the better European Death Metal bands in my opinion.

The main problem I had with Written In Blood was the length; it had only 7 songs. Soulreaper have definitely rectified that problem with 11 tracks on Life Erazer, one of which is a cover of Morbid Angel’s Fall From Grace. I didn’t think it was possible, but somehow Soulreaper has made an early Morbid Angel classic even more brutal and devastating than it originally was, plus, vocalist Christoffer Hjerten does a damn good impression of Dave Vincent. I just really thoroughly enjoy everything about this band: the production, the vocals, the dark melodic leads, the interesting riffing, the intensity, the in your face drumming… it’s all there in a nice, listenable package. Unfortunately, Soulreaper is still relatively unknown to the general Death Metal fan base, but I truly feel they are becoming leaders in their field.