FIRESPAWN — Shadow Realms (review)

FIRESPAWN — Shadow Realms album cover Album · 2015 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Shadow Realms" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Firespawn. The album was released through Century Media Records in November 2015. A teaser single in "Lucifer Has Spoken" was released in August 2015 to promote the release of the album. Firespawn is a project band featuring several rather prolific Swedish musicians in lead vocalist LG Petrov (Entombed/Entombed A.D.), guitarist Victor Brandt (Entombed/Entombed A.D.), guitarist Fredrik Folklare (Necrophobic, Unleashed), bassist Alex Friberg (Necrophobic), and drummer Matte Modin (Defleshed, Dark Funeral).

Stylistically the music on "Shadow Realms" is fairly standard Swedish death metal. There are old school traits in loads, but also other more contemporary elements like blast beats and rhythmic variation. There are quite a few nods towards Entombed, which is only natural as LG Petrov fronts the band and Victor Brandt is also involved, but the music on "Shadow Realms" is generally a bit more brutal and death metal oriented than contemporary Entombed. Petrov also sings darker and more guttural here, although his growling vocal style is still as distinct sounding as ever. Fredrik Folklare leaves his mark on the album too, delivering one well played and melodic guitar solo after another, and the rhythm section are very well playing too, which of course isn´t a surprise if you´re familiar with Friberg and Modin.

The material on the 11 track, 42:06 minutes long album is well written and relatively varied for the genre. Not all tracks stand out equally much, but the quality is high throughout. To my ears "Lucifer Has Spoken" is the most standout track on the album. The sound production is raw, powerful, and clear, which is a good fit for the music. So upon conclusion "Shadow Realms" is a solid quality effort by Firespawn. It lacks a bit in the originality department, but a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still well deserved.
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