UMUR
"Annihilation" is an EP release by Swedish death metal act Unanimated. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 2018. It bridges the gap between Unanimated´s third- and fourth full-length studio albums "In the Light of Darkness" (April 2009) and "Victory In Blood" (December 2021). There have been a couple of lineup changes since the release of "In the Light of Darkness" as drummer Peter Stjärnvind has been replaced by Anders Schultz (Unleashed) and Jonas Deroueche (Carbonized, Face of Evil) has been added as second guitarist, making Unanimated a quintet on "Annihilation".
Unanimated are along with artists like Dissection and Necrophobic one of the seminal blackened melodic death metal acts from Sweden (in the case of Dissection the scale maybe tips a bit more towards black metal) and while they´ve matured and have refined their style over the years, they still play a pretty old school rooted blackened melodic death metal style, which isn´t far from the style of music they played in the early 90s. To my ears the occasional blast beat parts lean a lot towards black metal, and if anything they´ve moved a bit more towards black metal in latter years.
The quality of the four tracks on the 20:46 minutes long EP is high and if you enjoy raspy black metal vocals, intriguing melodic yet still heavy and brutal guitar work, a dark and ominous atmosphere ("Of Fire and Obliteration" is the best example of that with its dark and ambient music style), and a well playing band, "Annihilation" definitely isn´t the worst release in this style. The EP also features a professional, clear, and meaty sound production, so "Annihilation" is through and through a good quality release. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.