Taetre's debut album 'The Art' (1997) blew me away. In fucking 2008, that is! I knew the band were from Sweden and played death metal, but that's where it ended. I saw 'The Art' available for cheap price, so I thought I'd give it a spin.

'The Art' blew me away, because it is full of true Swedish death metal and it's well done, too. Modern things (well, 1997 way modern things anyways) had not polluted these four guys' minds, as 'The Art' is made of brutality, melancholy and fine Swedish style lead guitar work. Frequently, this blasts like hell. There's tons of so truly Nordic tremolo riffage. And those lead guitar melodies... Haunting and dismal, to say the least. So, Taetre haven't invented anything new for this one, and neither reinvented anything. Hell, this blasts like Dismember (the drummer's Estby style slow fills must be mentioned), has melancholy similar to what Desultory used to have and tremolo riffage not far from black metal style and lead guitar melodies could appear on a Edge Of Sanity or perhaps on Unanimated or Necrophobic platter. The song writing is at times pretty adventurous, as the band often throw in new parts and lots of tempo/beat changes occur in any song.

The performances are packed with hellish energy. The vocals are great. Varying brutal, rabid and throat lacerating growls are accompanied by a few spoken bits. I also like the vocals because I can understand the words. The lyrical topics vary from Dracula ('Prince of Many Faces') to dark side of human mind. The guitars are totally malignant with their ripping heaviness and are firmly to the fore. The buzzing bass is a tad lost in the mix (by the way, there's a cool bass solo on 'Lifeplague'), but it murmurs powerfully anyway. The drums sound a bit weak at times. Especially the snare could have been way more powerful. Keyboards are used in a very minimal way, but they do serve elegantly whenever heard. While the mixing covers quite a wide area of the soundscape, and I like the contrasts heard herein, generally the sound is rather trebly, but it certainly adds to the cold, eerie atmosphere.

While 'The Art' does not belong to the list of legendary albums, I think it is worth to be checked out by a fan of Swedish death metal. This is just so familiar (followers, not leaders; somewhat affects the rating) yet good (very, very good at times), that one can't go wrong with this piece of art. While the cover artwork looks pretty amateurish, the music is not.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
05/19/2008 19:55