Band: OF FIRE
Country: Sweden
Title: Dräparen
Label: Art Gates Records
Year: 2019
Style: Death Metal
Review:
This is probably the swansong for Of Fire as they have recently announced they're taking a break , not to say they have disbanded, after two of the members left and the remaining ones declared they have no more drive to keep things going. And that's absolutely sad, you'll see in a few years this album at least will be one of the best done from the new wave of Swedish Death Metal sounds revivalists. The band has been criminally underrated so far, and it seemed the deal with Art Gates will shed some more light towards it, that's why the new announcement came as a total surprise, but it's also understandable after so many line-up changes. Anyway, this third studio album is made of 8 tracks and lasts for almost 40 minutes delivering an old-school Swedish Death Metal a la Dismember and Unleashed in their prime, very fat sounding, clean, groovy to the bone but at the same time heavy and commanding as Death Metal should be, not at all a fun thing like their initial labeling as Death'n'Roll might inspire. What strikes you from the start is the abrasive guitar tone, the oppressive bass lines and the perfect drums sound (indeed the drums have a ton of groove, but I wouldn't call this Death'n'Roll just based on this fact), and on top of that the rabid vocals. They also spice things up with a few discrete melodic leads and even solos here and there so we get the complete menu. From my point of view this is an excellent material that somehow got unobserved, or less observed by others that are now considered as highlights of the current Swedish Death Metal.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9/10