November 7, 2008

{     Bloodbath "The Fathomless Mastery"     }    

If reading these words is your introduction to the work of Michael Akerfelt and his insanely talented gang of longhairs (in both Opeth and/or Bloodbath) then march yourself down to wherever it is that you get new audio media and get Opeth's 'Ghost Reveries' and Bloodbath's 'Resurrection Through Carnage.'
Listen to them for a month or 2, maybe check out The Wacken Carnage DVD or the soon to be released Roundhouse Tapes DVD and come back to read what follows...

Ahh you made it. Thanks for joining me.

The new Bloodbath was, for me a bit of puzzler at first. It seemed to have all the elements that made their earlier work so fucking crushing: the blistering yet crunchy Dismember/Entombed influenced riffs, the nuclear blast beats, the cookie monster on fire vocals. But what is this? No near-pop punk hookiness? (Not that I would ever compare Bloodbath to the likes of Blink 182. This is a relative comparison.) But come on, this is a band that produced such classics as Eaten, Ways to the Grave, So You Die, Brave New Hell, etc., etc.

Oh, there it is: Mock the Cross! A new Bloodbath classic. Other than that the album is a step into the new terror-itory established on the recent "Unblessing The Purity" EP. Simplicity is thrown under the bus in favor of a spliced and diced bludgeoning that will shred and squeal it's way through your face after repeated listenings.

Earthrot is an excellent example of the move in that direction. It's all over the fucking place. The chorus hidden in a blast beat, then given over to a breakdown, each verse seeming to get it's own twist through the torture rack. It's like this on every song. While he didn't have any song writing duties on this one, like everything Mr. Akerfelt has his name on it's virtuosic.

To get back to that earlier comparison with punk: let me put it to you this way: Resurrection Through Carnage is to The Descendents "Enjoy!" as The Fathomless Mastery is to Fugazi's "Red Medicine."

If that doesn't give you enough perspective to skip down to your local music hole once more on Akerfelt's behalf to snap this album out of the murky bucket of slop they've shoveled out of the bottom of the new music ocean (along with the amazing new Mock the Cross T-Shirt.) then allow me to introduce you to your musical future you fucking pwn.