UMUR
"The Hunt For White Christ" is the thirteenth full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Unleashed. The album was released through Napalm Records in October 2018. It´s the successor to "Dawn of the Nine" from 2015 and shares some of the Odalheim/Midgard Scandinavian mythology lyrical themes of the predecessor in conceptual form. It´s actually a lyrical approach the band have used on the last three album releases. They´ve always written about Scandinavian mythology/vikings/anti-christianity, but it´s become more stylized and thematic from "As Yggdrasil Trembles (2010)" and onwards.
Stylistically the material on "The Hunt For White Christ" also continue the old school death metal style of the last couple of releases. Relatively simple and accessible song structures with catchy vocal phrases that you can growl along to, an impressive arsenal of guitar riffs, which are both rooted in death metal and thrash metal, a thight and powerful playing rhythm section, Johnny Hedlund´s strong and passionate growling vocals (fully intelligible), and as the icing on the cake... the incredibly skillful lead guitar work of Fredrik Folkare. Folkare is a large part of the reason why Unleashed´s albums have gone from being good to great, to now being excellent.
I won´t mention individual tracks from the album as highlights, because "The Hunt For White Christ" is one long highlight featuring only strong and memorable tracks. 11 tracks and a total playing time of 41:39 minutes and that´s it. The album don´t need to be any longer, to achieve its goal of making you bang your head and play air guitar to one after another of Folkare´s blistering leads.
"The Hunt For White Christ" features a clear, powerful, and brutal sounding production job, which further enhances the listening experience. The catchiness, the power and passion, and the high level performances go hand in hand, and the result is a high quality death metal album by Unleashed. This is not the sound of a band gearing down and making themselves comfortable after being active for many years, but the sound of a band in their prime, firing on all cylinders, because they still have a burning desire to conquer the world with their music. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.