UNANIMATED — Ancient God of Evil (review)

UNANIMATED — Ancient God of Evil album cover Album · 1995 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Ancient God of Evil" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Unanimated. The album was released through No Fashion Records in March 1995. Unanimated is one of the most prolific acts on the blackened part of the early 90s Swedish death metal scene along with artists like Dissection and Necrophobic. The debut full-length studio album "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead (1993)" generally received a lot of praise and is today considered a bit of a classic blackened death metal release from the early 90s, but it didn´t elevate Unanimated from being an underground act to slightly more mainstream underground appeal. In other words, they are still one of the less known early 90s death metal artists from Sweden.

Since the release of "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead (1993)" there´s been one lineup change as bassist Daniel Lofthagen has been replaced by Richard Cabeza (Dismember, Carbonized, Murder Squad, General Surgery, etc.). Richard Cabeza also played on the band´s demos, but did not appear on "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead (1993)", probably as a consequence of his involvement in the heavy recording and touring schedule of Dismember, which was an act he was also a member of in those days.

As mentioned above the music on "Ancient God of Evil" is a blackened type of death metal, but also a very melodic type of death metal, featuring strong lead guitar themes (and occasional use of atmospheric keyboards). The atmosphere is dark and the whole thing reeks of the occult, which is in some part due to the snarling raspy vocal delivery by Micke Jansson, but also because of the lyrics. As far as musical style goes, Unanimated have pretty much stuck to their guns on this album, which feels like the natural successor to "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead (1993)". The musicianship is a notch tighter and the sound production is slightly better, but songwriting wise they haven´t developed much as far as I can hear. They are less savage on this release and the music is slightly more varied, but that´s about it.

"Ancient God of Evil" is arguably a quality sophomore studio album by Unanimated. It´s pretty much on par with the debut album, but I think the debut is slightly more interesting, or maybe the rawness of that release actually suits the band´s music better than the slightly better production values on this one do. A 3.5 star (70%) is still deserved though.
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Nightfly wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I've not heard that one but do have their 3rd album in my collection which i think is very good.

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