UMUR
The Autumn Years is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Furbowl. The album was released in September 1994 by Black Mark Productions. Furbowl is a three-piece act featuring former Carnage and future Arch Enemy and Hearse vocalist ( and bassist on this album) Johan "Liiva" Axelsson. Furbowl actually disbanded when Johan left to join Arch Enemy just a year after the release of The Autumn Years.
The music on the album is hard rocking Swedish death metal. Imagine a combination of Entombed, Motörhead and a touch of goth rock in the vein of The Sisters of Mercy ( the goth influence is especially strong in the closing track Still Breathing) and you´re just about there. The songs are well written and generally memorable. Johan "Liiva" Axelsson sings in a semi-growling and somewhat melodic style, so the music isn´t very brutal and the album is actually on the verge of what I would label death metal. Maybe melodic death´n´roll would be a better label.
There´s not much that stand out as fantastic on the album, so while the album is very consistent I´m not exactly blown away. Less can sometimes do though and overall the album is pretty good. A 3 star rating is warranted.