Bloodbath – Grand Morbid Funeral
More like grand morbid FUNeral!
Bloodbath is the metal supergroup to end all supergroups. Over the band’s 16-year run, it has hosted luminaries such as Opeth’s Mikael Åkereldt, Hypocrisy’s Peter Tägtgren, and, now, Paradise Lost’s Nick Holmes as vocalists. Though Åkereldt left some time ago, Opeth’s drummer, Martin Axenrot, plays on this release, alongside Katatonia’s Per Eriksson on guitar and Jonas Renkse on bass. Anders Nyström backs up Eriksson with extra guitar duties. While all the members of these bands have made a name for themselves playing relatively melodic variations on more traditional, gurgly, crypt-infecting death metal, Bloodbath has always served as an outlet to exercise their old-school muscles as part of a project whose sole raison d’être is to maim all nonbelievers and wimps. After a six-year gap following 2008's The Fathomless Mastery, this album does exactly that.
In fairness, I’m going to start with the things that aren’t as likeable about this release. First, as I previously indicated, the production isn’t great. The bottom end of the mix is much too loud, and the band could have stood to turn their Boss HM-2 overdrive pedals down a little bit. The ear-piercing, nails-on-a-chalkboard characteristic tone imbued by the HM-2 is satisfying when used properly, but Eriksson and Nyström went a little overboard here.
Second, Nick Holmes isn’t quite on his A-game here. Remember when Lord Worm came back to Cryptopsy after a decade-long absence and metalheads immediately soiled their collective pants, but then he sounded like this? Holmes isn’t nearly that bad, but like Worm, age may have gotten the better of his delivery. Instead of Åkerfeldt’s guttural roar, Holmes has a somewhat raspy, shallow, almost black metal-style vocal style that isn’t as gratifying as those of the band’s past vocalists. To his credit, however, he has an impeccable sense of timing, and his lyrics are pure evil.
Those relatively minor issues aside, this album is absolutely massive. From start to finish, it’s unceasingly brutal and fun. Every song has a riff or two that will have you breaking out your invisible oranges, and Eriksson and Nystrom’s leads continue to sound indescribably demonic. As with the past couple of Bloodbath records, despite all the talk of sounding very “retro,” the band has always mixed the vintage barbarity of early Death, Morbid Angel, and Obituary with a modern musical sensibility. This isn’t Blessed Are The Sick redux; in pacing, structure, and the overall polish on the music, Grand Morbid Funeral is arguably more approachable – and in some ways, more satisfying – than actual old-school death metal. It’s like the remastered versions of Star Wars if George Lucas hasn’t ruined them with unnecessary CGI banthas. But in Bloodbath’s version, Han doesn’t just shoot first; he rips Greedo’s head off of his shoulders and snuffs the remaining life out of his exsanguinating, twitching flesh sack by beating him to death with it.
I simply cannot overstate how many great moments there are on this LP. From the benedictine chants on Church of Vastitas to the über-catchy chorus of Famine of God’s Word, I promise your head will begin rocking back and forth as a primitive muscle impulse. Just when you think there might be a throwaway track, along comes a fantastic drum fill from Axe or a macabre vocal line from Holmes. The title track shifts from a crushingly slow and filthy Obituary-style jam that feels like being lowered into the grave into a lightning-fast blast party topped off with hysterical vocal ravings. This is one funeral you don’t want to miss. 9/10.
Grand Morbid Funeral comes out tomorrow on Peaceville. Stream it here and buy it here, you vile bunch of sordid heathens.
