UMUR
"Seeds of Doom" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Incardine. The album was released through Bone Records in September 2019. The material featured on the album was however already recorded in 1993, but as the band split-up, the album didn´t see a release in the 90s. Incardine are notable for featuring a young Fredrik Folkare (Unleashed, Necrophobic, Firespawn...etc.) in the ranks. On "Seeds of Doom" he performs rhythm guitars and bass though, which is not exactly what I expected considering his high level lead guitar performances with other artists just a few years down the line.
While "Seeds of Doom" is unmistakably a Swedish death metal release, it actually sounds a bit different from the two main death metal styles played by early 90s Swedish death metal acts. They don´t really sound like the Stockholm scene (Entombed/Dismember...etc.), and they don´t sound like the US influenced acts like Vomitory and Deranged either. To my ears their closest relative is Unleashed (minus the viking/Scandinavian mythology lyrics and imagery)...but not the 90s version of that band. Instead it´s the latter day version of Unleashed that I´m reminded of, which is of course only natural as Folkare is a member and a major contributor to the sound of that era-Unleashed. So in addition to the old school Swedish death metal riffs and rhythms "Seeds of Doom" also features galloping thrashy riffs and loads of melodic lead guitar work (courtesy of lead guitarist Daniel Wallner).
If I didn´t know better, I wouldn´t have guessed that "Seeds of Doom" was recorded in 1993, as the high level musicianship, the intricate songwriting, and the powerful, clear sounding, and detailed production are all of a higher quality than most of the contemporary releases I can think of (which doesn´t mean it´s a better album overall compared to the classics of 90s Swedish death metal). So it´s not a particularly time-typical Swedish death metal release. It´s a high quality death metal release though and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.