UMUR
"The Collector 2" is a compilation album by Swedish death metal act The Cleaner and Mr. Filth's Van Murders. The compilation was released through Art of Stench Records in August 2019. It features all the material from the EPs "Cancun Deathride" (2018), "Cancun Deathride Part 2" (2018), "The Retard King" (2019), "Carpe Rectum" (2019), and "On a Butchers Night" (2019), plus the previously unreleased tracks "Beastlike Filth Commando" and "Executioner Hood Homage Part 2". The Cleaner and Mr. Filth's Van Murders was active from December 2018 to August 2019 and released no less than nine EPs and one full-length studio album in those months and "The Collector 2" as mentioned above features the material from five of the EPs. A second compilation album titled "The Collector 1" was released in May 2019 containing the material from the remaining four EPs plus a couple of previously unreleased tracks.
The Cleaner and Mr. Filth's Van Murders is a one-man band consisting of prolific Swedish death metal musician Rogga Johansson. Johansson is involved in a large number of different death metal projects, and his release schedule is arguably one of the most busy on the scene (often releasing dosens of albums with different projects each year). The Cleaner and Mr. Filth's Van Murders is a project born out of the interest to tell more stories about the two murderes (The Cleaner and Mr. Filth) Johansson first sang about on "The Van Murders" (April 2011, Vic Records) album from his Ribspreader project.
Following on the heels of the release of "The Collector 1", this compilation is very similar in style, quality, and sound to the first compilation. It´s 22 tracks of old school Swedish death metal distributed over a 69:33 minutes long playing time, which means the listener gets their money´s worth in terms of quantity. The quality of the music is pretty standard for the genre. There´s nothing offensively bad here but on the other hand there´s nothing which is out of the ordinary for a release in this style (other than the concept lyric theme telling the stories of the two murderes and their exploits). So I´d call this solid before I´d call it great, but when that is said it´s still an entertaining release while it plays. As all five EPs where the material are culled from are pretty similar in production style and musical style, the compilation is a consistent listen too. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.