UMUR
"Where Ironcrosses Grow" is the 6th full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Dismember. The album was released through Karmageddon Media in March 2004. It´s the successor to "Hate Campaign" from 2000 and features a couple of lineup changes compared to the predecessor. Guitarist Magnus Sahlgren has left and hasn´t been replaced which means that David Blomqvist handles all guitars on "Where Ironcrosses Grow". Bassist Sharlee D'Angelo has also jumped ship, and therefore Blomqvist also handles most bass parts on the album, except for the parts on "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and on "Children of the Cross", which are played by Richard Cabeza, who makes a return to Dismember. The remaining part of the lineup are Fred Estby (drums) and Matti Kärki (vocals).
"Where Ironcrosses Grow" continues the by now well known old school Swedish death metal style of its predecessors, and it´s generally an album featuring very few surprises. Dismember have taken their songwriting up a notch though, which makes "Where Ironcrosses Grow" one of the better quality releases in their discography. The band play fast, mid-paced, and slow, and there is overall decent rhythmic variation on the album. Some tracks stand out more than others (to my ears the most heavy tracks on the album work best), but "Where Ironcrosses Grow" is generally a solid release. While the material on the 10 track, 38:12 minutes long album isn´t exactly melodic death metal, Dismember are still pretty good at using melodic guitar themes and guitar solos for effect. A feature which is great for the variation of the music. Other than that the music is pretty basic guitars, bass, drums, and Matti Kärki´s distinct sounding growling vocals in front.
The musicianship is strong and the sound production is well sounding and suits the material well, so upon conclusion "Where Ironcrosses Grow" is a good quality death metal album by Dismember. At this point in the band´s career a little development in sound could have made their music a bit more interesting, but to fans of the band this is more of the same poison. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.