UMUR
"Breed Deadness Blood" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Necrovation. The album was released through Blood Harvest Records in February 2008. Necrovation were formed in 2003 and released several minor releases before being signed to Blood Harvest Records for the release of "Breed Deadness Blood".
Stylistically the music on "Breed Deadness Blood" is old school Swedish death metal, but with a twist. The twist is that there are quite a few more tempo changes in the band´s music than what you´ll normally hear when listening to an old school Swedish death metal release. It doesn´t sound forced or anything like that though, as the band very naturally shift pace and make the new sections part of the track they are playing. The many tempo changes are actually a great strength as they provide the otherwise somewhat generic music with variation, which ensures the attention of the listener. I think I hear something a bit more sinister and dark about the band´s music compared to some of the bigger Swedish acts from the early 90s, and because of that I´m often reminded of Norwegian artists like early Darkthrone and early Cadaver.
The musicianship is on a high level on all posts, and the relatively intelligible growling vocals are well performed too. Another great asset on "Breed Deadness Blood" is the raw, yet detailed, and very powerful sound production. It´s so retro sounding you´ll find yourself thinking that this is 1991.
So is this a bit deriative? Well...yes it is somewhat retrospective in sound and style, but it´s so damn well performed and produced that it´s hard not to get carried away if you enjoy this type of music. If I have to mention a minor issue it would be that the material on the 9 track, 37:43 minutes long album is slightly one-dimensional and that it´s sometimes hard to tell the tracks apart. Of course repeated listens help, but it doesn´t change the fact that a few more catchy hooks would have made the album a bit more interesting. So I´m a bit biased here as I think Necrovation delivers old school Swedish death metal like it´s supposed to be delivered, but then again they add very little original or unique sounding to the genre, and that is a slight issue (along with the rather one-dimensional songwriting). So I think it speaks volumes of the quality of the album when I still think a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved, even though it´s certainly not a flawless release.