UMUR
"Grey-Flannel Souled" is the second full-length studio album by Swedish death/thrash metal act Leukemia. The album was released through Step One Records in 1994. It´s the successor to "Suck My Heaven" from 1993. The core of the band is still the duo of Kentha Philipson (bass, drum programming, guitars, and vocals) and Jocke Granlund (vocals), but on "Grey-Flannel Souled", Tobbe Ander has been added to the lineup as lead guitarist. "Grey-Flannel Souled" was recorded at Unisound Recordings with producer Dan Swanö (who also performs backing vocals, piano, and bass). The material was recorded in 25 hours during two recording sessions.
Stylistically the material on "Grey-Flannel Souled" is a thrash infused mid-paced type of death metal. The vocals are shouting raw vocals rather than death metal growling, and the riffs are sometimes closer to thrash metal style riffs than to death metal ditto. The 10 tracks on the 48:27 minutes long album are decent, but not great compositions, and it´s not an album featuring many standout moments. While I can live with the relatively mediocre songwriting (I´m not overly thrilled, but I´m not completely put off either), the programmed drums disturb the listening experience, because of the stiff artificial way they are programmed and the even more artificial tone of the programmed drums. I have nothing against programmed drums if they add to the music, but in this case it´s obvious that a human drummer would have added an important organic element to the music, which could have elevated the quality of the compositions.
The rushed recording process, which may be because of lack of funds, is also audible, as the sound production is overall not that well sounding. It´s not just the tone of the programmed drums, which stick out as below the standards for the genre, the guitars sound weak too, and "Grey-Flannel Souled" is simply not a particularly pleasant listening experience. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.