UMUR
"From the Mouth of Madness" is the fourth full-length studio album by multi-national death metal act Johansson & Speckmann. The album was released through Soulseller Records in March 2018. It´s the successor to "Edge of the Abyss" from 2016 and lead guitarist Kjetil Lynghaug, who was only credited as a session musician on "Edge of the Abyss (2016)", is now a permanent member of the lineup.
"From the Mouth of Madness" is a relatively short and conscise album featuring 9 tracks and a total playing time of 31:30 minutes. Stylistically the material on the album don´t differ much from the old school death metal style of the preceding releases by the band (simple riffs and rhythms, and the occasional atmospheric lead part to spice things up), and lead vocalist Paul Speckmann still performs his growling vocals with an odd unintelligible drawl. He sounds almost sloppy in the way he pronounces the words, but there are a couple of vocal parts on the album where he sings in a more clearly pronounced death/thrash style, which is more similar to the vocal style of the late 80s/early 90s releases by Death Strike and Master. They are unfortunately few and far between, because his more dominant growling vocal style isn´t particularly impressive.
Upon conclusion "From the Mouth of Madness" is a decent quality old school death metal release, but it´s not breaking any new ground, and it´s a pretty standard quality release for the genre in terms of production values, songwriting, and performances. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.