UMUR
"At the Plateaus of Leng" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Megascavenger. The album was released through Chaos Records in February 2014. Megascavenger is a Rogga Johansson project where he handles guitars, bass, and some vocals. The drums are handled by Brynjar Helgetun (who also sings on one track). On "At the Plateaus of Leng" all 9 tracks feature a different vocalist, which was also, to a lesser extent, the case on the band´s debut full-length studio album "Descent of Yuggoth (2012)". Among others Dave Ingram (Benediction, Bolt Thrower, Down Among the Dead Men), Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx, Hail of Bullets), and Kam Lee (Massacre, The Grotesquery).
The dominant vocal style on the album is growling, but there are a few tracks included featuring more "regular" singing. The basis in the music is old school Swedish death metal, but "At the Plateaus of Leng" is at times also quite melodic, and generally a bit more varied than many of Rogga´s other projects. The fact that the album features so many different lead vocalists has the effect that it becomes a bit less cohesive than what is usually a good idea when you release a full-length album, but listened to one by one all tracks on the album are pretty good quality material. As it´s often the case with Rogga´s projects the material seldom reach excellence though. For that the riffs aren´t remarkable enough and some of the vocal performances not convincing enough.
"At the Plateaus of Leng" features a well sounding production, which suits the material well, and in many ways "At the Plateaus of Leng" is one of the more interesting Rogga related releases out there because of the varity of the material and the varity of the vocal performances, but the diversity is also the album´s biggest issue as the album feels more like a compilation of leftover tracks from various other projects (Rogga has collaborated with quite a few of the guest vocalists on other projects), than a planned album release. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved though.