Wombbath - Downfall Rising

WOMBBATH - Downfall Rising (PULVERIZED Records CD 2015)

"Downfall Rising" was released in 2015, so I am really fuckin late with this album. I bought it only like half a year ago and it took me six months to play it! Yes, I blame that "too many albums / too much music" syndrome for it, as it makes it hard to be always on time with some albums. Luckily, in case of "Downfall Rising" I have to say that it's better late than never! 

Who are Wombbath? Well, some of you may remember this Swedish band from excellent, but so criminally underrated "Internal Caustic Torments" album, released in 1993. For me this is one of the best Swedish death metal albums and surely one of the most brutal ones. Sadly, the EP, which followed it, "Lavatory", was a big pile of garbage, so I can say that it's good that the band split up shortly after its release. But from 2014 we can see Wombbath active again, although I think that there's only Håkan Stuvemark left from the original line up. But he's been joined by some experienced musicians like Jonny Pettersson (who does his beastly vocals in many bands) and Henrik Åberg, who played drums on Gates of Ishtar's "The Dawn of Flames" among many. 

Now, there's always a question if such comeback is good or not, do we even want to hear old bands reformed? Well, there's also a question if Wombbath will play shit metal like on the "Lavatory" EP or yet again manage to bring us pure crushing death metal tortures? I am glad that after hearing "Downfall Rising" (and some recent split EPs with Wombbath) I can say that this is a great return from the dead of this band and that this is also their comeback to the best quality Swedish death metal. Stylistically "Downfall Rising" may be different to "Internal Caustic Torments", it's more like a traditional Swedish death metal album, with the typical guitar tones, riffs, melodies, etc... But all that sounds good and really "Downfall Rising" is a great album, with handful of killer tracks that fans of this style of death metal should love. 

I have to admit that Wombbath really nailed it and delivered fantastic material. I like that it is just 30 minutes long, so each of these seven songs is great and there are no fillers or monotonous parts. From start to finish you'll be under severe attack of death metal riffage and you will enjoy its every moment. And it definitely doesn't sound like an album from a band, which was inactive for almost 20 years. These 30 minutes are pretty intense, Wombbath doesn't waste time and once the intro is finished, they play some nasty shit. Quite few parts of "Downfall Rising" are fast paced, which is awesome, I like that powerful sound of this music, but I am also happy to hear some crushing, slow parts. "Fall of the Weak" is the best song for me, with great epic atmosphere and vocals by Thomas von Wachenfeldt. "I am the Abyss" and "Under apokalypsens svarta vingar" are also truly killer and vicious songs. 

The only doubt, which I have about "Downfall Rising" is the last song "Abandoned Furthermore", which stylistically is very different. It actually is a new version of the song from first album (there it's titled "Abandon") and I like the original version. This one is OK also. But I am not sure if it was necessary to make this song again, also because it doesn't really fit the album so well. It is very atmospheric, epic tune, with keyboards and shit like that, so it surely stands out on the album, but I think it would do well even without it. Anyway, I like what Wombbath recorded on their new album and I am surely looking forward to hear more. The came up also with a bunch of split EPs, I did manage to grab a couple of them and I will happily add more to my collection... 

Standout tracks: "Fall of the Weak", "I am the Abyss", "Under apokalypsens svarta vingar" 

Final rate: 80/100