DESULTORY – Counting Our Scars
- Posted on 05-01-2011
14 years away from the scene, the reactivated Swedish death troop Desultory come back firing on high with their fourth album "Counting Our Scars". Once hearing about their signing to Singapore label Pulverised Records, I knew we weren’t going to hear this quartet make a sequel to "Swallow The Snake" in a similar vein – as many long-time Desultory followers sent this one back to the stores in droves for its obvious modern, simplified groove nature. Rest assured, these 9 songs see Klas Morberg, Hakan Morberg, Johan Bolin and Thomas Johnson pummelling your senses with savage, melodic-tinged death- taking advantage of better production techniques and the time wisdom one would expect from older musicians.
For myself, the better death acts in today’s scene understand you can’t stand still within the same tempos or song structures if you want a memorable album that will achieve longevity. You can expect high paced thrash riffs and screams from the grave through material like “In A Cage” and “Uneven Numbers” – songs not dissimilar to the Sunlight death brigade. Where "Counting Our Scars" gains more of a foothold is in its mid-tempo to epic strains – take one listen to the marching triplet momentum of “The Moment Is Gone” or the Maiden-like spider web guitar play throughout “Leeching Life” and its clear the band hone in on precise, sharp riff changes and a confident flow from song to song. When Desultory does play a pit moving riff, there’s still a biting, dark nature to either the riff or drum part to keep it away from being an obvious metal core breakdown.
Much like Grave and Unleashed when they took a mini-break to rejuvenate their creative batteries, Desultory prove that the time away hasn’t shown any loss in edge or ability when it comes to their brand of death metal.