Vim Fuego
Let's face it - Scandinavian death metal has been forever tarnished by the vile melodic widdlings of the "Gothenburg" scene. Pretension and preening replaced power and precision as the vital ingredients for a successful band. There was a time when Scandinavian death metal was primal and merciless rather than limp and formulaic as it is now. And Denmark's Lipid harks back to that earlier era.
The guitars on `Deliver Us From Evil' sound like amped up chainsaws, the vocals are roared, the kick drums have just the right click to them, and you can bang your head to the music. Melody? Fuck off! This is about riffs and violence. There are no airy fairy rock style guitar solos either. Any solos found here are unbridled, verging on out of control, and overdosed with squealing feedback.
Lipid aren't quite up to the first division heavy hitters of Entombed and Dismember at their prime, but then no one else was either. `Deliver Us From Evil' gives the likes of Unleashed, Grave, Carnage and Darkthrone a decent run for their money though. Twenty first century production values often leave many bands sounding a bit dry and sterile, but Lipid have retained all their analogue roughness, which definitely helps in the power department.
Many a young death metal band has fallen into the trap of playing too fast for their own good. This is Lipid's third full length album in over a decade of existence, so any mistakes of youthful exuberance have long been worked through. Perfectly formed, sharply crafted riffs abound, and these guys aren't afraid to slow things down to a menacing mid-pace to show them off. "Silence Or Death" and "Signal Revenge" both demonstrate this perfectly. That doesn't mean they can't put the pedal to the metal when it's needed; just check out "Silent Horrors".
Forget melodic "death metal". Forget death `n' roll. Forget Gothenburg. If you want proper death metal done the way it should be, then let `Deliver Us From Evil' drop a great dose of it right in your lap. This is old school without being old hat.