Megascavenger - Descent of Yuggoth

MEGASCAVENGER - Descent of Yuggoth (SEFMADEGOD - CD 2013)

I like Rogga Johansson. I really do. I like his music, many of his bands are just fantastic, it is always really cool that he’s able to come with so much great stuff. But my wallet hates him. Just how much money must I spend on all his releases every year? Man, I think that as the owner of something like 30 releases that Rogga made I should be already getting lifetime discount from him or even everything for free, especially that I basically buy releases of all his projects like The Grotesquery, Putrevore, Ribspreader – which are my favourites I think and then Revolting, Bone Gnawer, Paganizer, Those Who Bring the Torture, Demiurg… just to name few. I literally have so many CDs with Rogga’s music that he has his own shelf at the place, where I keep my collection of CD/LP.

But let’s be honest here… Not always the quantity comes in hand with quality and that is something I have noticed in few occasion, with such projects like Bloodgut or some Paganizer stuff, which he released. For instance some of the collections of Paganizer outtakes and rarities are a bit boring and you can feel they’re just not as good as some other albums. I guess some of these releases have been made just for fun, rather than anything else, as their musical value is not as good… that is why the content of those CD is just forgettable. You know, all those short, grinding Paganizer songs… it may be fun to play them at the rehearsals, but not necessarily they’re good to be on the CD. Anyway, 2013 – as any of the recent years – is also a time, when I can expect that I will have to spend some money on Rogga’s countless bands – yet without that discount I’m afraid hehe. I actually have just purchased the recent releases from Ribspreader and Putrevore and now I’m listening to the debut album from a project, which I was really looking forward to hear and which showed its ugly face for the first time in 2012, when Selfmadegod Records released a debut 7”EP with its logo on it. It is called Megascavenger.

“Songs of Flesh” EP was really damn cool, especially as it had a couple of killer guests doing some vocal lines (Jörgen Sandström and Paul Speckmann). Finally the time came for “Descent of Yuggoth”, a full length debut of Megascavenger and on this CD Rogga have also managed to get some guest appearances of few legendary death metal musicians – a very clever idea, I must say, as it will surely bring attention to “Descent of Yuggoth” and is also a nice surprise for all diehard death metal maniacs, especially those, who like myself, have been enjoying this slaughter for 20 years at least. About all those guests I will say something more in few minutes. Now I just wanna say that I really like “Descent of Yuggoth”, the music is very good, but there is just one problem with this album, which I have. And it is that the truth is it could have been released with any other name of Rogga’s bands on the cover and it would surely fit there as well. If it had RIbspreader logo – it would be OK. If it had Paganizer logo – that would also be OK. But instead we have Megascavenger and one can surely feel a bit skeptical about sense of having so many, sometimes almost identical, projects, where only the line ups may be different (but sometimes even they are the same). Anyway, I’m not moaning, really, as I like Rogga and I also like “Descent of Yuggoth”. I’m just trying sometimes to find myself in all this chaos this Swedish dude is doing around himself. Maybe sometimes he’s just change himself for small too much…

OK, but back to the business… Megascavenger is pure old styled death metal project, with the music as filthy, rotten and traditional as you can only hope it to be. The main idea for the music was I guess to make it sound as damn heavy and brutal as possible and thus most of it has been played in very slow, sometimes almost doomy tempos, what initially will bring to your skull such killer cult acts as Asphyx or Autopsy. But obviously the whole music of Megascavenger on this record is not so one dimensional and there are also some more mid paced songs and some, which will just force the maniacal headbanging, so creepy infectious and groovy they are. So imagine a combination of everything what was the best in the old school death metal – Swedish style mixed with some Dutch and British bands, with Autopsy, Repulsion, Bolt Thrower and Master – this is “Descent of Yuggoth”! There are surely some excellent tracks on the album, starting with that opening song “Nihilisticon” – which surely would fit The Grotesquery album perfectly… Then “Deathobsessed” is also great, so are “Descent of Yuggoth” (maybe my favourite song?), “Void of Damnation“ (killer, a bit doomy, song!!!) and few more. Really, the whole album is very even, none of the tracks are weak and fillers, so it is a very good work done by Rogga!

And speaking of the guests on the album… Dan Swano did some killer vocals in “Nihilisticon” and Jörgen Sandström in “Deathobsessed”. Marc Grewe did some vocals in “Smokescreen Armageddon”, but I don’t like his entire contribution (those higher screams are shit), probably as much as I don’t like what he did with the reunited Morgoth – his vocal lines on the live album are just pathetic and weak and bring shame to once legendary band. It surely is one of those reunions, which should never happen and I hope Morgoth will not record anything ever again. Marc lost his once great growling completely, nowadays he sounds very weak and that can be also heard on “Smokescreen Armageddon”, sorry to say so! This song also features Mameli from Pestilence doing some guitar leads. Some more guitar guest contributions come from Eric Daniels and Jonas Lindblood and especially the latter did cool job, as “Void of Damnation“ is such an excellent song…!

So, I have listened to this album I think more than 20 times now and I can say I like it a kit. I’m only disappointed with one thing, concerning “Descent of Yuggoth” and it is the fact that the album contains both songs, which appeared earlier on the debut 7”EP “Songs of Flesh”, what basically makes that single a completely useless, as you have both tracks also on the album. Of course one can say that it will be a cool collecting item, especially if you have one of the green vinyl copies, limited to 100 copies, but that feeling of being fucked a bit is still there. But OK, all the damage with Megascavenger is done. Now I’m waiting for new Paganizer album.

Standout tracks: “Deathobsessed”, “Descent of Yuggoth”, “Void of Damnation”, “To Revel with Vermin”

Final rate: 80/100