BRUTALISM

Rogga Johansson and Kam Lee, yes…those death metal masters, return with the follow up to their projects crushing debut ‘Tales of the Coffin Born’. This time around they deliver a concept album based around Mason Hamilton’s experience in Arkham Institute for the mentally ill. Lyrically it is inspired, I like the fact that it does not follow a generic death metal path as it is a classic traditional death metal mix from both sides of the pond (USA and Europe). If you study the lyrics, it is a terrifying story that is told, the powerful bass sound and the ever present gnarly guitars really make this a cool effort. However, I am a little confused because overall, I actually preferred the band’s debut effort, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time. 

Delving further in this chaosphere of dirge and madness, ‘Beware They Who Burrow Beneath’ rips your soul apart, it’s really happening here and this is made more essential with death metal maestro Dan Swanö working his magic in the production and mixing. Whilst this is an album musically resides as an easy listen, lyrically delving into Edgar Allen Poe inspired tales gives any listener a little bit more to think about and this makes ‘The Facts and Terrifying Testament of Mason Hamilton’ more of a welcomed challenge. If you go with the music alone, the result is a typical juggernaut recipe from two of death metal’s most inspirational artists, and the main focus for me comes with the written content within the albums concept.