WOMBBATH — Downfall Rising (review)

WOMBBATH — Downfall Rising album cover Album · 2015 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Downfall Rising" is the second full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Wombbath. The album was released through Dark Descent Records in August 2015. It´s a comeback album for Wombbath who disbanded in 1995 and didn´t reunite until 2014 (although only guitarist/bassist Håkan Stuvemark remains from the 90s lineup). Their last release before this one was the 1994 "Lavatory" EP, which was a very different sounding release to the early releases by the band, as it featured a relatively creative death´n´roll sound, while the early releases featured a brutal US influenced death metal style.

"Downfall Rising" is not a continuation of any of the two main death metal styles the band have played before, but instead it´s an early 90s Swedish death metal influenced release. It´s especially Grave I´m reminded of when listening to "Downfall Rising", as a result of the relatively brutal sound and growling style for a Swedish band in this style, the thick massive sound production values, and the predominant mid-pace of the music (the album features faster parts too though). The guitar tone even resembles the guitar tone that Grave uses. Wombbath are however a sligthly more adventurous and less one-dimensional act compared to their fellow countrymen and sources of inspiration, and that´s a big plus in my book when listening to "Downfall Rising". An example of that is the closing doom/death track "Abandoned Furthermore", which features keyboards and piano, and is in fact a re-arranged version of "Abandon", which is the closing track on Wombbath´s debut full-length studio album "Internal Caustic Torments" (1993) (their only album release from the 90s).

"Downfall Rising" is a short release featuring only 8 tracks, and a total playing time of 31:59, but nothing more is needed for Wombbath to establish that they are back with a vengeance. When that is said, I´m not sure exactly how I feel about the band changing their style again, as this could just as well have been a completely different band playing. Other than "Abandoned Furthermore" which connects the dots a bit, there´s nothing here which screams to me that it´s Wombbath from the early 90s playing (I´ll settle for the explanation that this is a new start for the band though), and honestly the music style featured on this album isn´t particularly unique either. Thankfully the quality is otherwise high and "Downfall Rising" is overall a strong death metal release and therefore a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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