Bloodbath - Nightmares Made Flesh
Century Media
Death Metal
12 songs (45:17)
Release year: 2005
Bloodbath, Century Media
Reviewed by Aaron
Album of the month

A new Bloodbath album! Sweet. Well, this one still hasn’t been released over where I live, so this is a nice treat. Let’s see how much they’ve evolved since Resurrection Through Carnage, and let’s doubly hope that they got rid of that fucking irritating ‘drilling your teeth’ guitar tone that so plagued the last one. Let us lastly see what sort of job Peter Tagtgren did in replacing Mikael Akerfeldt, who put on a legendary performance on the last album.

First thing you’ll notice is the lack of that annoying guitar tone and some added speed. The production is nice and suitably roomy, with a more modern feel then that of the band’s previous album. The drums are suitably loud, and the bass drums in particular have a nice noise. The guitars have that ‘deathcrush’ sound prevalent on more recent death metal releases (such as Warkult), and as such, they’re fucking relentless in all ways.

On to Peter. Many thought, upon his announcement, that he would be too lightweight a vocalist to fill Akerfeldt’s shoes. Guess what? They were dead fucking wrong. This is the best vocal performance I’ve ever heard from Peter; he really sounds possessed. His low, yet audible growls are intermixed with the sort of vocals he really showcased back when he was in The Abyss, and interspersed with some great snarls. I would even go so far as to say that Tagtgren actually outperforms Mikael on this album. Why can’t he sound like this with Hypocrisy is my question? C’mon, Peter, throw us some of these insane vocal talents on your main band.

The opener, Cancer of the Soul, is one riff after another. It really is ruthless, reaching out of the speakers and cutting your head off, then tearing out your brains. The sound is mainly old-school Swedish death with very few modern touches other then the production. A fast choppy riff leads into some solid drumming followed by Peter’s brutal growls. Speedy crushing riffs are the forefront here, and Peter even sounds a bit like George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fischer during a couple points, thanks to that lengthy ten second scream/growl he performs at around 1:05. Great song, great vocals, great drums, great riffs.

Next up is Brave New Hell, which starts up with a couple of thrashy Slayeresque riffs and collapses into fairly standard death metal territory a few seconds later, switching around soon with several time changes and aggressive infectiously catchy riffs and a very nice chorus.

This album doesn’t ever stop dishing out the high quality death metal, and it’s obvious that the members know this art form inside and out. Bloodbath is, at its rotted stinking bloated heart, an compilation of at least nine or ten of the ultimate death metal archetypes that ruled way back when, when all this was new. You can detect hints of almost every death metal band from the early 90’s in this landmark release, including Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Unleashed,, a little Possessed, Obituary, and even some traces of early Sepultura.

All in all, this is a really great album. So far, my favorite release of 2005.

I wonder if this lineup will decide to tour…

Killing Songs :
Cancer of the Soul, Brave New Hell, Feeding the Undead, Eaten, Year of the Cadaver Race, Bastard Son of God, Stillborn Saviour, Blood Vortex
Aaron quoted 95 / 100
Dylan quoted 94 / 100
Other albums by Bloodbath that we have reviewed:
Bloodbath - Grand Morbid Funeral reviewed by Goat and quoted 88 / 100
Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery reviewed by James and quoted 74 / 100
Bloodbath - Unblessing the Purity (EP) reviewed by Dylan and quoted no quote
Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage reviewed by Crims and quoted 92 / 100
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