Various Artists - Swedish Death Metal (CD)

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These past few years I have caught myself thinking about old school Swedish Death Metal many times. Bands like ENTOMBED, GRAVE, DISMEMBER and UNLEASHED just to mention a few released magnificent albums and the scene started taking back some of its lost glory. One man that has contributed to that due to his love towards the specific music is Daniel Ekeroth, bassist for the brutal Death Metal band INSISION.

In 2007 he released a book entitled Swedish Death Metal, which became a hit in Sweden. As you can easily understand just by its title, this book covers the history of the Swedish Death Metal scene from its early years, as well as how it evolved in the early 90's and its lasting legacy in the 00's. So, the initial plan was that Ekeroth would release a CD with his book, but due to lack of time and funds he had to cancel it. Now, with the help of German label Index Verlag his plan is being materialized…

…and not as one, but 3 whole CD's, three CD's that cover a pretty wide spectrum of the Swedish Death Metal scene! When I got this for a review I was kind of sure that I owned much of what it contained. That was until I saw the tracklist. This compilation even contains songs that have been taken off demo tapes and 7 EP's. With a total playing time of over 200 minutes, Swedish Death Metal compilation is a more than delicious pack for collectors, as well as a more than perfect way for beginners to make their first - and definitive may I add - steps to the Swedish Death Metal scene. From the rotten early (brutal or groovy, depends on the band) works of acts like NIHILIST, MORBID and GROTESQUE to the Black/Death Metal of bands like MARDUK and DISSECTION and reaching this day with KATALYSATOR, Daniel Ekeroth has gathered not only the elite, but the underground hidden diamonds of Sweden, offering probably the most complete compilation ever made for this historic and invaluable Death Metal scene.

It would be stupid to start mentioning bands that are included in here, since the tracklisting is more than indicative for the ingredients of this rotten recipe. Ekeroth has managed to portray every single aspect of the Swedish sound with samples from the classic Stockholm sound, the early years of the Gothenburg scene, as well as the fusion of Death Metal and the emerging Black Metal back then. He also wide handedly offers the early works of bands that are now well known under a different name or a different musical direction. For example ENTOMBED's first form NIHILIST, GRAVE's initial form CORPSE, THERION's early Death Metal works, TIAMAT's haunting Death Metal early tunes and many more stuff that will make some people that haven't spent so much time researching this beautiful scene find interesting stuff in this compilation. I guess that I don't need to say anything more here. And don't you dare fucking ask me if you should or shouldn't buy this compilation. If you still have doubts, sincerely you wasted your time reading this review.