Lobotomy - Against the Gods / Nailed in Misery

LOBOTOMY - Against the Gods / Nailed in Misery (THRASH CORNED - CD 1995)

Lobotomy was never a band, which would have similar appreciation and high status as some other death metal bands from Sweden that formed the scene in the early 90’s. And frankly, I agree, because their albums are mediocre, to be honest. I could listen to them occasionally, but I’ve never been a great fan of Lobotomy music. But if I was going to recommend anything from their discography, then I would actually mention all Lobotomy demos, as this is where they sounded the best, in my opinion. I know that it's terrible to get these old tapes nowadays, the price of 40-50 euros for an old cassette is simply ridiculous. But there is this CD compilation from Thrash Corner Records, released in 1995, which will help you find out what two of Lobotomy demos were like. Here's "Against the Gods / Nailed in Misery" CD. 

And I can assure you that if you worship Swedish death metal from the old days, this CD will be up your street. Unlike some of their later recordings like “Lobotomy” album, where they sounded much weaker, demos sounded really great! Especially third demo "Nailed in Misery" was awesome. It contained only two tracks and the original tape from Obscure Plasma (limited to 100 copies) is impossible to find, but on this CD this demo sounds great. Fairly good production, very solid songwriting with their groovy, brutal and hardly melodic death metal. Obviously they had a lot of these characteristics for their native death metal style, the opening part of "Misery End" will leave no doubt where this band was from. But Lobotomy tried to avoid some clichés and never went for strong Entombed influence. Maybe their music wasn't so progressive as Afflicted's for instance, but had enough individuality to sound good and interesting. There's an extra song from the "Nailed in Misery" recording session, which wasn’t released before, which is a nice surprise. This song includes guest vocals from Masse Broberg (then Hypocrisy). It's weird it wasn't featured on the original demo, as it sounds equally great as the other two tracks. Sooo good then it’s been saved from being forgotten. 

And then "Against the Gods", another very good demo from Lobotomy, released in 1992, so it’s an older effort from Lobotomy. The production is maybe weaker, especially the guitar tone is a bit thin. But on the other hand it is exactly what you would expect Swedish death metal band to sound like in 1992! There’s a whole bunch of great riffage, groove and generally I think that this demo sounds surprisingly well for such a small band. The title song for instance rips fuckin guts, what a good piece it is. There are seven songs in total, so I think this demo shows much better what Lobotomy was worth.   

The only shame of this CD is that it doesn't feature also Lobotomy's first demo "When Death Draws Near" (1990). It would be nice to have a whole set of demos, unfortunately we get only two plus an unreleased song. I definitely recommend this compilation, I like it more than any of Lobotomy albums, to be honest. 

Verdict: 80/100