UMUR
"Odalheim" is the eleventh full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Unleashed. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in April 2012. It´s the successor to "As Yggdrasil Trembles" from 2010.
Stylistically "Odalheim" is a continuation of the old school Swedish death metal style of "As Yggdrasil Trembles (2010)" and a continuation of the rising quality curve of Unleashed´s music since their comeback in 2002. Unleashed sound confident, commanding, and passionate, delivering their music with great power. The songwriting is top notch, and the material are both catchy and (for the style) reasonably varied. Unleashed play both fast-paced and mid-paced death metal riffs and rhythms, and lead vocalist/bassist Johnny Hedlund delivers memorable viking/Scandinavian mythology lyrics with great snarling growls. There´s a blackened edge to a few sections and occasionally even to Hedlund´s vocals, but it´s just a touch. While the band members are all well playing, lead guitarist Fredrik Folkare stands out for his exceptionally well played guitar solos. Powerful, tasteful, and melodic guitar solos, which suits and greatly enhances the material.
"Odalheim" is a well produced affair, featuring a powerful, clear, and detailed sound production, suiting the material perfectly, and upon conclusion it´s a high quality release from Unleashed. They excel in producing relatively simple death metal (vers/chorus structured) with great catchy lyric lines and anthemic choruses. This is death metal you can sing/growl along to, but it still features enough details to prevent the music from becoming too formulaic. Folkare plays a great role in adding guitar parts which make the music less predictable than what the vers/chorus structures may initially suggest. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.