If you are yearning for that old school Swedish sound of death, Chaosbreed is here to fuck you up with their debut release 'Unleashed Carnage' mini-CD. Back to the roots bloody roots this certainly is. Thanks to madmen Esa Holopainen (guitar, Amorphis), Taneli Jarva (voice, The Black League, ex-Sentenced), Olli-Pekka Laine (bass, Mannhai, ex-Amorphis), Marko Tarvonen (guitar, Moonsorrow) and Nalle Österman (drums, ex-Gandalf).

Chaosbreed haven't done anything genuinely individual here. This sounds like a "have fun" project, but still this deserved to be published (now you should know should you get this or not!). This is done in style and strictly following the laws of OSOSDM (old school of Swedish death metal (!)). The bass provides mucous breeding ground for low guitars, which struggle to shake the slime of them, never succeeding. Drums are relentless, all cymbals sticking like sharp needles out of murky depths. Voice is rotten, not so growling, but with so slime in it, too. 'Unleashed...' was recorded in one day and mixed the other. Sound is, as you have probably already guessed, raw, of a very demo-level kind. Still, everything is there. Lower end is somehow missing its lowest depths and I need to roll bass on my amplifier to 11 to get just enough of it. Lead guitar is sometimes buried under the wall of death a bit, but never fully.

Wait for something you never waited to hear on any albums of guys' main bands. 'Intro - Prelude to Death' is weird. Acoustics, guitars and synths creating a soundtrack for some unreleased Italian art splatter movie. 'Wretched Life' gets the thing rolling with speed, with saneless soloing and brutal take on OSOSDM. The main riff must be found from the lost archives of Dismember, let me tell you! Of course there's this eerie slower part sending shivers down yer spine. 'Rotting Alive' is slower at the beginning, then reaching for that Entombed brutality, fucked by Necrophagia, Mr. Jarva sounding a tad like Killjoy. 'F/C/D/C (Freedom Corps Death Crush)' opens up with blastbeating frenzy, then another OSOSDM-riff ascends. Wonderful slower part is a bulls eye with its killer lead guitar! 'Friendly Fire' is a monument of death. Definitely Chaosbreed at their most individual level. There's this groovy, I hate to write this, stoner solo... Well, couldn't come up with anything else. The last 2½ minutes are great; another eerie lead guitar, this time accompanied with Mr. Jarva's speech and horror some horror sound effects. Then it is all over.

Guys probably rented a small cabin on a small island, took a lot of sausage and even more beer with 'em to stay alive. The music they took with 'em was released before 1990. Then they got wasted on sausage and beer listening to all these death metal platters of the yore, like a bolt out of the blue came an idea: "Let's fucking do this"! And they did it. With respecting and following the rules of the old school. But the story ain't over yet. Full length album called 'Brutal' is coming out in near future.

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/25/2003 19:06