I remember the first time I’ve
heard about Comecon. I think it was the end of 1992, when I saw an interview
with them in Metal Hammer. I noticed their killer, Entombed-like logo and it
obviously caught my eye and brought interest in probably yet another great Swedish
band. I got their cassette of debut album, but I cannot say that I was really
impressed by the music. It was decent, but not quite as good as some other
bands from their country. Yeah, that was many years ago. I still have first two
Comecon albums, but honestly I haven’t listened to them in many years. But
recently I decided to give a listen to “Converging Conspiracies” and damn, this
album sounds way better than I remembered and I actually really fuckin enjoyed
it. This album has everything that fans of the Swedish death metal should like
and even more. Somehow “Converging Conspiracies” is rather forgotten, so I
decided to write few words and remind you about Comecon.
Well, maybe one of the reasons
why Comecon seems to be underrated is the fact that they never were a typical
Swedish death metal band and in some ways they were quite odd. Their music may
have had some typical ingredients of the genre (Sunlight Studio production, a
lot of Entombed influences and so on). But some of their songs or riffs were
just weird and far from typical. They have been changing the style with every
album, and sadly their third album “Fable Frolic” went such a crazy and weird
way that it turned this band into total garbage. Yeah, if there’s an album,
which you should avoid, then avoid “Fable Frolic”. They have also been using a
drum machine – which was not so common back in those days. And finally every
album featured different vocalist – LG Petrov sang on “Megatrends in
Brutality”, Marc Grewe on “Fable Frolic”. “Converging Conspiracies” featured Martin
van Drunen. Actually it feel like the change of vocalist fitted also the change
of the musical direction. Like Grewe, who sang on “Fable Frolic”. At that time
Morgoth also turned into complete fuckin crap with their forgettable album
“Feel Sorry for the Fanatic”, so both albums were weird, very un-death metal productions
of once death metal bands. Meanwhile “Converging Conspiracies” is quite harsh,
vicious and aggressive death metal and for such van Drunen’s voice fits
perfectly.
It’s not your most brutal and
vicious death metal album. The music is quite groovy, a lot of their riffs do
not even sound typical death metal. Sometimes they have that Entombed-like
death’n’rollish sound, other time they may remind you Morgoth from not bad at
all “Odium” album, so Comecon did not avoid a bit of experimenting with the
music. But there are also some more straight forward death metal pieces and
even some killer melodies, so the whole album is very varied, but sounds good
all the way through. And van Drunen’s vocals add more harsh and aggressive
feeling to everything, that’s why I listen to this CD with such a huge
pleasure. Songs like “Democrator”, “Community”, “Bleed / Burn” (definitely the
best song on the album), “The Whole World” or “Worms” (which surely is the most
angry and aggressive track here) sound incredibly good, there are many
fantastic riffs, great arrangements and ideas, killer vocals... Comecon will let
you look at death metal from different perspective and it’s surely a great
advantage of “Converging Conspiracies”. The music may sound like a mixture of
Entombed, Pestilence and Morgoth (from “Odium”), but it also sounds original and
kind of unique, so that should be enough as for the reason if “Converging
Conspiracies” is worth to find. Yes, it is. It’s Comecon’s best album for sure.
Standout tracks: “Democrator”,
“Community”, “Bleed / Burn”, “The Whole World”, “Worms”
Final rate: 75/100
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