Megaslaughter - Calls from the Beyond

MEGASLAUGHTER - Calls from the Beyond (ARSENAL OF GLORY - CD 2007)

Here's another lesser known band from the Swedish death metal scene of early 90’s. Another band, which did have some sort of small impact on the scene, small recognition, but never really had a chance to become “top league” kind of band... simply because they were not good enough. I know that nowadays even such bands are often called “cult”, etc, but do not exaggerate, please. Megaslaughter were fine, solid death metal band, but nothing more than that. But I think it’s cool to know and remember also such smaller bands nowadays, because a lot of many were just good and worthy on their own way, even if they never went beyond a demo or a 7”EP. 

Megaslaughter did manage to record one album. "Calls from the Beyond" came out in 1991 on Thrash Records, which was a cool label, I think, because they had a whole lot of killer bands in their roster. Let me only remind you such jewels as Excruciate, Epitaph, Carbonized, Sentenced, Wombbath, speaking of the full lengths. And they also did 7 inches from the likes of Sorcery, Old Funeral, Vital Remains, Revenant... They're all a wet dream of vinyl collectors nowadays. So is "Calls from the Beyond" LP for sure. It's interesting that originally this album was only available on LP, first CD version came out already in the 00's - and it was a boot from Arsenal of Glory, which I happen to have and play now. For a boot, the sound is pretty good, but do not expect anything from the visual side, as the booklet is as simple as it can only be. There's nothing there. But CD contains also two demos as a bonus, which is a nice addition to the collection of old Megaslaughter recordings. So, let's give it a spin. 

Starting with "Calls from the Beyond"... This is your harsh and vicious death metal from the early 90's, one of those, which you could easily put aside to Authorize, Crematory, Uncanny, Interment, Mastication, Therion (very early!) and so on. Megaslaughter did not have much in common with the lantern of the Swedish death metal like Entombed, Dismember, Unleashed or Grave. They hardly used any melodies at all, their sound was also far from the fat buzz of Sunlight Studio. They also did not sound so atmospheric as Tiamat, Cemetary or Edge of Sanity nor as progressive as Afflicted. But even without these trademarks, you could have no problems with guessing where were they from, because Megaslaughter was alike to these harsher, more brutal and obscure Swedish bands (some of which I mentioned above). 

The thing is, "Calls from the Beyond" reminds me old demos, but not necessarily Swedish full-length albums. Usually most of these Swedish bands jumped on a higher level with their albums, speaking of both compositions and production. Megaslaughter didn't really. They kept their death metal as primeval, nasty and harsh as possible, and the production was improved from their demos rather little. But I like their attitude and viciousness of such songs as "Blood Runs Free" or "Raise the Dead" (which do sound more Swedish than all the rest of the album, there're are even keyboards in one fragment, which is awesome, I think). "False Paradise" begins with the typical Swedish melodic pattern as well, so I have point this out. It all adds some diversity to Megaslaughter's death metal savagery. Some slower riffs here and there, like the one, which opens “Death Remains” also caught my attention. So, you can see there are some particular fragments, which stand out on the album, some good songs as well... but the whole album is just far in my ranking of favourite Swedish death metal full lengths of that old era. 

Then the demos... “Death Remains” demo from 1990 has three songs (two of which were re-recorded for the album), but this demo doesn’t really sound that good. The production is even rawer, a bit muffled and musically everything is sloppy and rather primitive... Very forgettable, if you ask me. “Demo 1991” is much better, except maybe the useless intro. But all three songs sound very good, maybe even better than the album. Such “Face of the Deep” is such an aggressive motherfucker, it’s pretty brutal, sometimes fast, but with a killer slower piece in the middle, which I like a lot. Following songs “Afflicted Flesh” and “Suffer for Nothing” are also pretty damn good (all songs would make a killer 7”EP!!!), what makes me think that Megaslaughter was going in pretty awesome direction with their obscure death metal... but all of a sudden, they split up and “Demo 1991” was their farewell recording. Shame, if you ask me! 

I had a laugh, when I've read in "Swedish Death Metal" book by Ekeroth that Megaslaughter was "minor band formed in Gothenburg... (whose) music is a confused blend of Cannibal Corpse and Metallica". Damn, what a nonsense Ekeroth wrote there (his book is full of such crap, so it’s not all such a good reading as it could have been, I’m afraid). Megaslaughter were a small, second rate band, I agree about that, and "Calls from the Beyond" was rather a mediocre album, but not in the vein of bands he mentioned. And after all these years, this album got some charm, which allows me to like it more than I used to in the past. 

Standout tracks: "Raise the Dead", "False Paradise" 

Verdict: 75/100