Bombs of hades - Chambers of Abominations

So, many of the old death metal veterans decided to come back and recapture the feeling they had in their youth, when they shredded with first bands and demo tapes or albums. It seems that the death metal plague will never really be cured, unless you're Matthias Lodmalm, who I think is the last person ever to come back with death metal project. You know what the biggest problem with all these reunions and comebacks is? I wouldn't care much about them if it wasn't for two reasons - one, I like Swedish death metal (and old death metal in general) too much to be uninterested and two - these bastards happened to record some damn good albums; at least most of them managed to do so. No one would give a damn if a band like Bombs of Hades, Death Breath, Interment, Desultory or Autopsy recorded a shit. Instead they came back like the time stopped fuckin 15 years ago and showed the energy and feeling many newer bands lack. Something I've been missing in death metal for some years, in late 90's / early 00's especially, has been brought back.

What is Bombs of Hades? Jonas Stalhammar on vocals. GREAT! He's definitely one of the best vocalists of the early 90's Swedish scene and participated in such legendary acts as UTUMNO, GOD MACABRE and ABHOTH. Butch Ekman also from ABHOTH. And Magnus Forsberg from TRIBULATION, band I don't care about. Seems like a cool pack of "could be father of average metalhead he, he", who decided to bring back their death metal memories on some jamm sessions, like other fathers do with their old blues standards. Ain't that cool? I would love to have father like that. Pity I'm from other generation, now in early 30's, so my dad's favourite Swedish band would be ABBA he, he. Anyway, Bombs of Hades has been formed in 2002 and came with the "Carnivores" EP first, which was fine, but nothing more. With debut full length, "Chambers Of Abominations" they nailed it!

I must say I got addicted to "Chambers Of Abominations" for a while. I couldn't stop listening to this LP. The same thing happened with Death Breath album. Once I had in on my vinyl player, it didn't leave it for few days, until I decided to get it on mp3, otherwise I would play the LP to its death. And I carried on listening to mp3 instead. One would say that the music on "Stinking up the Night" is nothing special; just simple punked death metal. But it's the feeling and stench of rottenness this music brings I loved. The same thing is with Bombs of Hades. The music is extremely simple. All riffs are primitive and basic, there's no technical show off, no guitar masturbation or blasts with 320 bpm. You won't find things like that on that album. Instead you'll find music, which is based on the Swedish death metal cult, with the classic production and general feeling - that guitar sound is just AWESOME!!! - all spiced up with Autopsy and early Death influence and punk of corpse. That punk thing is clearly hearable in such tracks as "Carnage" for instance; this one is just very short punk riffing with death metal vocals. In my opinion the best thing about Bombs of Hades is the way they diversified their album, as there are slow, almost epic riffs, which are incredibly great and give chills immediately ("Funeral", "One With Hell") and there are also fast, filled with rotten energy tracks such as "Corpse Holocaust". It's weird but sometimes the atmosphere in such songs reminds me even fuckin' Darkthrone (again, listen to the riffs in "Funeral")!! Mix Entombed with Darkthrone and you'll get Bombs of Hades he, he! Anyway, the songs are so damn good and my faves are "Bombs of Hades", "Corpse Holocaust", "Master Builder"... The listening to "Chambers Of Abominations" is not challenging, it's very easy and fluent, but the joy it gives can rival the one when you dig up the grave and start playing with that old rotten corpse you find in there.

Add to all that one of the best front covers I've seen recently and some truly cool lyrics, about zombies, Satan, etc... and well, "Chambers Of Abominations" is definitely one of the best albums from the renewed, but for me never deceased, Swedish death metal genre. It's different from bands like Demonical or Facebreaker, but if you like your old school simple and putrid, if you like good old Nihilist, then go and get Bombs of Hades. LP in nice gatefold is a must collector item.