Paganizer – The Tower of the Morbid

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PAGANIZER is set to release their 11^th full-length, “Towers of the Morbid” on Oct. 27, 2019. Equipped with artwork from the legendary Dan Seagrave, this record looks great, but do not let that fool you because it’s nothing special.

With the singles came praise, and it was definitely due, as “Apocalypse Writings” granted some mean chops and melodic riffing to the world of Death Metal. The song is memorable and catchy, and at track two, it’s right at the beginning of the record. “Cannibal Dreams” provided a more typical approach to Swedish-style Death Metal with a heavy closer. “Rot Spreads” was a fast blur of Swedish Death Metal, less memorable than a good Friday night.

Outside of track two, the singles do not portray the best of Paganizer, but they do highlight what you can expect from the majority of the album: typical Swedish Death Metal. Otherwise, “Drowning in Sand” was the strongest song for its fortified structure, nice leads and melodic conclusion. It is a ray of hope for the album. The title track also shines for its reoccurring atmosphere and generally good structure.

Where originality fails, however, production and songwriting shine. There is not a moment where the songwriting is questionable or shoddy in any way. In fact, everything flows quite smoothly. The production is also good. It isn’t completely clean, but it’s just right for the genre: raw to the point where it’s gritty but not to the point where nothing is legible.

One flaw I noticed was that the album’s structure seems to be unbalanced. While the title track is near the end, it is surrounded in a two-track radius of uninspired music. Tracks two through six are all at least good, and it would have been nice to see them spread out more. Otherwise, the second half of the album is a power vacuum.

Disregarding a few tracks, the rest of the album is, again, typical for the genre. That is not to say that what is on the album is bad. Any fan of the genre will love this record, but with all the other Swedish Death Metal albums so far this year that were much better, I would be surprised to see this album in an end-of-the-year list.

Songwriting: 9
Originality: 3
Memorability: 6
Production: 7