Mr Death - Death Suits You

 

MR DEATH - Death Suits You (AGONIA Records - 10"MLP 2010)

Mr Death has released this 10” MLP only a year after their debut full length album came out and I can tell that from the musical point of view “Death Suits You” is a rightful continuation of “Detached From Life”, but whether this material is better than the debut… well, here I have some doubts. Sure, it is still classic Swedish death metal playing, mainly influenced by Entombed, but you can also find here many similarities to Grave’s “Soulless” album, speaking of the overall grooviness and feeling of the riffs. Each of the six tracks from “Death Suits You” has some cool parts, they’re also relatively diverse – for instance “The Plague and the World It Made” is slightly slower and groovier, while “Strandead” starts with much faster type of riffing. I guess my favourite song would be “Celestial Suffering”, which really crushes with great parts and rotten atmosphere, this track really sounds like death metal devastation. The nicely doomy riff from the opening part of it is probably my favourite fragment of the whole MLP. At the same time the opening theme of “March to the Dark” sounds like it was taken directly from Entombed’s “Chief Rebel Angel” (and funny enough, also Sinners Burn has done exactly the same in “Buried in Barbed Wire” on their “Mortuary Rendezvous” album).

The production on the 10” is OK, maybe a bit too mouldy and somehow I feel like not aggressive enough, I can say that I liked the sound on “Detached From Life” more. With “Death Suits You” I have a feeling like something is missing here. The whole music sounds not effective enough, I lack some more aggression and maybe something else, which I cannot really describe, but it could be something what would rip my guts and slash the skin with every riff and drum beat. This feeling is growing in few less inspiring moments, when the music sounds slightly lifeless. And I really feel disappointed with the vocals, which I think were better on the debut album. I don’t know whether it’s the way the vocals have been recorded and mixed or maybe Jocke just growled in different way, but it’s not 100% right, in my opinion. They’re very shallow somehow!

The songwriting on “Death Suits You” is very solid, there are, as I already mentioned, many great fragments and generally I like the songs, but this MLP would be much better with more powerful sound and with more vicious vocals. That makes me feel slightly disappointed with this record.

Final rate: 68/100