Death metal with rock influences from Sweden. A bloody familiar concept, innit?! I think Entombed's 'Wolverine Blues' from 1993 was my first experience with this kind of stuff. This ain't as rocking as that album or Gorefest's 'Soul Survivor' (1996) for example. 'Born in Hell' is my first experience with Lobotomy, while it is their third full length album.

Take ultra-heavy, familiar Entombed-mixed-with-Grave guitar sound, come up with some quite twisted horror riffing, get some groove and rock riffs played heavy way into the shit plus some nice harmonies at times and there you have it: Lobotomy. This album has nothing to do with original music, but the world needs shit like this and Lobotomy ain't the worst band making this kind of noise. Lobotomy have sniffed old corpses and found the right way to treat the influences: Not raping them. The riffs are between okay and very good, latter being sadly the minority, but it's turns the other way around when talking about the songs! When the band get it rolling well, it rolls like hell and now I ain't talking about rock 'n' roll, mind you. Drumming isn't individual, as aren't growled vocals (from low to higher) which at times remind me of Chris Barnes' best moments. The sound is heavy (surprise...) and dirty enough, too. This was recorded at the Sunlight Studios, so you should know the result... My only complaint is somewhat thin and rattling snare drum sound, which do not fit in very well. Anyways, gladly this album ends after 42 minutes, because more of the same would've just made it uninspired. The first half of the album is good, but there's a few not too hot pieces on the second one.

The lyrics are about human filth. We are born into hell, yes. Some stuff is a bit self-pitying and there's no new messages, either. Violence, anti-religious stuff and then some. Booklet (which is not unified at all when looking at the pictures) has different colours (e.g. brown, blue, green) in it just like 'Soul Survivor's booklet. Just an accident or another influence? The album features some samples, by the way, which are definitely used well.

I got this for a few Euros, so not a bad bargain. I never would pay 20 ones (yeah, here new albums can cost this much!) for this, though. Lobotomy are still just followers and I want real quality stuff when I pay a higher price. For me, this kind of music works best with beer. If you crave for another Swedish death metal platter, you could do a lot worse than this. Just check out that geared-to-kill opener, groovy headbang fest 'Fistful of Demons', heavy 'n' guttural 'Scream for Me' and eerie 'Dying Days' and fucking rot 'n' roll. And do not forget them beverages...

Rating: 7+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/28/2002 22:14