Unanimated - Victory in Blood (2021)

Sweden's Unanimated has never released a bad record, and it wasn't about to start when time came around to release their fourth full-length in 35 years of existence. Victory in Blood reads like a tour de force of the black and death metal aesthetics heralded within its scene, leaning much heavier onto the former for the actual music, where the vocals are the element that straddles the line. This is an aggressive rush of a record, sometimes a bit predictable in its rhythmic ideas as are many bands who love to blast away, but nonetheless atmospheric and well-produced with a few memorable surprises waiting in the depths of its aggression. The band has not sought to reinvent itself by any means, you can trace the direct line of how they got from In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead to this one, nor do they stand out far from other groups like Marduk or Dark Funeral, but they approach this new material with brazen confidence and blazing competence.

They really like to emphasize the speed here, but tunes like "As the Night Takes Us" prove that they can play about in a mid-tempo sandbox, and they can even pull off another interlude piece in the acoustic "With a Cold Embrace" and its surprising clean vocal harmonies of some quality. The riff construction isn't terribly progressive, and they don't often stride into some epic chorus that will blow your testicles off, but Victory in Blood is certainly a flood of intensity with a group of musicians who work in lock step as they lay their Satanic brickwork. The volumes here are great, with epic drumming, swarthy bass that will turn around in your gut, and killer rhythm guitar tone that can balance out both the thicker chord patterns and the bleeding melodies so important within the Swedish black metal. The vocals are a broad hybrid of rasp and growl, and also sound tremendous within the mix. I find that the more technical they get with their riffing, or the more atmospheric, the more interesting the material gets, but there's no question that this is a professional, punishing effort which puts them near the very forefront of the survivors within this style.

In fact, I think Victory in Blood is strong enough that I'm just as likely to pick this down off the shelf as I am In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead or In the Light of Darkness, and it seems like a re-haul of the aesthetics they were using back in the 90s, only clad in the denser, louder sound that studios are capable of producing in current times. Anyone into Sacramentum, Necrophobic, Diabolical, Thulcandra, Naglfar or Dawn should have a blast with this belligerent hellscape of a metal album, and they're another unit that proves there is no slowing down with age, that the vile imaginations that roosted over the 90s are still very much intact and relevant, and there's no need to stand solely on nostalgia when you can still lay a smackdown like this one. They might not be the catchiest songwriters, they might not be the stuff of legend like a Dissection, but they are God-damned, and damned reliable.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/unanimatedofficial/

Unanimated - Annihilation EP (2018)

In 2009, Unanimated had...animated itself from the dead and given us In the Light of Darkness, arguably their strongest album to date, but the idea of a productive, new phase of their career seemed to fold as the years rolled forward without much happening. Thankfully, this wasn't the sign of a new break from the band, and nine years after that damn solid effort they returned with a new EP in Annihilation, which shows no loss of energy or momentum from where they had been prior. There's a subtle air of modernity to the material on this, still a brazen hybrid of death and black metal, but they incorporate some different tones and melodies, and a little bit of atmosphere through the synths in the close of "Adversarial Fire", helping to round this new material out so that it sums up to something more than a blasting slugfest.

The production is virile and fresh, the performances on point, I believe they had just one new guitar player different than on the last album, and he fits seamlessly with their collection of blackish chords and evil melodies. Ander Schultz of Unleashed continues to hammer away behind the kit, and the trio of veteran members sound as invigorated as you're going to get, considering they were all playing in the 80s and early 90s. It's a shorter recording at around 20 minutes, with one of its four tracks an instrumental with lots of atmosphere, acoustic guitars, and such, but as a proof that the band was still very much alive, this would certainly tide us over, even if it's not their best. Song-wise, they remind me a lot of Necrophobic here, although not as catchy as that band's last two full-lengths, but if you're a fan of the one, or of Diabolical, this is directly within that category, and if you're somehow familiar with In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead, or your interest in Unanimated stopped there, treat yourself to everything they've done since.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/unanimatedofficial/

Unanimated - In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead (1993)

After going back to revisit this Swedish band's debut, I find that it holds up so much better than its follow-up Ancient God of Evil. There is a certainly raw brutality that whittles its melodic elements down to an eerie science, and despite its primal production standards, there remains a dire charm to its songwriting, with a woodsy permeating darkness that clings like a fog to the listener, an almost thematic adherence to its title. In fact, though I was impressed with the band's recent return In the Light of Darkness, I am juggling it back and forth in my mind with this to determine which is better. I believe I'm going to have to call this a draw...

Unanimated were one of the formative bands of the melodic death metal surge in the early 90s, but for some reason they did not strike gold like At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity or the later In Flames. It may have something to do with the band's insistence on keeping it much more in the death metal sphere than the uber catchy songwriting those others would soon commit themselves towards. In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead has its own share of glorious picking lines, but you always feel as if the zombies are about to catch up with you and take you down. Micke Jansson's vocals are gruff and paralytic, and the guitar tones burn with a carnal crunch.

"At Dawn" is an intro with some reverse guitars that shifts into proper acoustics and whispers, before the trotting gait of "Whisper Shadows" arrives like a morning dew over a field of carnage and slaughter. "Blackness of the Fallen Star" has a thrifty, nasty guitar line which would have felt good even on a black metal album, and "Fire Storm" opens with powerful, sweeping organs that create a stark contrast with its bludgeoning old school death metal and thrashing rhythms. "Storms from the Skies of Grief" has a nice Western feel to it, created by the lush acoustics and bluesy opening lead, but soon lurches into a slower paced, death/doom track. "Through the Gates" is another hell-fueled black/death hybrid with some mean guitar lines, and "Wind of a Dismal Past" balances a slow glory to some raging pick-ups.

Those countless graves reminds
Me of the cold in the
Winds that rules the forest
Those countless graves seems to
Rise before my eyes

"Silence Ends" is another cool, but brooding intro piece, with dark ambiance and swelling, tormented tones, prefacing the evil of "Mournful Twilight", with its shadowy, twisting grooves and pure guttural throat horror. The title track arrives in a cloud of fog and batwings, an eerie choral synth striking like the knell of a Satanic church bell before the clasp of its bleeding melodies. "Cold Northern Breeze" takes a turn for the more epic, like a primal pagan metal anthem with majestic overtones, and the album ends with a fairly cool cover of Venom's "Buried Alive", all dirt and crunch and drunken memories.

In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead was pretty good for 1993, when only the faintest traces of this style were starting to emerge out of the more aggressive Swedish death scene led by Entombed and Dismember. There is an edge of black metal aesthetic here, and this is one of those albums you can put in your stereo on a stormy, dark night around a campfire with your friends and totally get high too, while the spirits of the dead gather 'round to mock you.

Highlights: Fire Storm, Storms from the Skies of Grief, Wind of a Dismal Past, Cold Northern Breeze

Verdict: Win [8/10] (to wake up and to fall back)

http://www.myspace.com/unanimated08

Unanimated - Ancient God of Evil (1995)

Although I remember Ancient God of Evil as one of the better albums in the first wave of melodic Swedish death metal, it has never been my personal favorite from Unanimated; my cravings lean towards their debut In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead, and their recent reunion effort In the Light of Darkness is probably better than both of them. Having recently gone back to revisit this record, I can say that, while competent and wonderfully mixed for its day, it's loaded with the sort of melodic riffs that just don't stick with me.

Fortunately, the album is also pretty heavy, and the band's use of acoustics and atmosphere on some of the tunes really lend it a depth that many of its peers did not possess. A few examples would be "Ruins", which starts off with a creepy but wondrous melodic line with some synths, then bursts into a raging, if simple verse rhythm. "Mireille" is a tranquil instrumental, opening with acoustics that flow into some electric guitars. Most of the straight, heavier fare is passable, a mix of the melodic and profane aggression, such as "Dying Emotions Domain" and the driving "Oceans of Time", but nothing stands out very far when you compare this album to an Elegy or Jester Race.

The silent years of helpless crying
The bridge of hate travels in my mind
Beyond all the doors of gruesome hunger
I hear the threnodes, i behold

The album maintains a large cult following, probably due to the fact the band never really 'sold out' or changed its style, like some of their peers. Though I respect it, I don't hold it in quite that much regard. It's a pleasant listen and sounds quite good even now, but there is nothing really memorable about it. Just a good album, lost to all but a few. And the title is a little misleading.

Highlights: Dying Emotions Domain, Ruins, The Depths of a Black Sea

Verdict: Win [7/10] (cold eyes floating within time as one)

http://www.myspace.com/unanimated08

Unanimated - In the Light of Darkness (2009)

It seems the forgotten Swedish titans of the 90s continue to crawl forth from the woodwork of their celebrated scene to rekindle the early fires of black/death metal and show the new blood just how it's done. This was the case with Seance and is now also so for Unanimated. Though the band's previous albums In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead and Ancient God of Evil were cult classics of aggressive melodic death metal, they never garnered the success of a band like Dissection and fell by the wayside as the genre shifted more towards the modern crop of highly melodic death (In Flames, Dark Tranquillity) or flag-waving At the Gates clones (early Soilwork, etc). After 14 years the band returns with their third opus, and it's more than a match for either of its predecessors.

In the Light of Darkness sounds devastating, a crushing effort which offers both yearning melodies and pure Swedish death metal bordering on some blackish tendencies. The haunting instrumental intro "Ascend with the Stench of Death" serves as but a teaser for the spider weblike opening riffs and dense atmospherics that precurse "Retribution in Blood". Winding verse melodies, and a bridge riff shimmering with evil as it bears the weight of its six-string archways, declare WE HAVE RETURNED. "The Endless Beyond" opens with a creepy and beautiful melodic picking while the chords crash in like a bleak abandoned vessel upon a churning sea. "Diabolic Voices" nails the coffin with a mid-pace, explosive snarls erupt over driving blast beats and daemonic chords. The title track plods methodically forward through an array of excellent melodies to cap off the chugging mutes and slowly grinding chrods. Other tracks of note include the glorious "Enemy of the Sun", the ghastly tones of "Serpent's Curse" and the closing acoustics of "Strategia Luciferi".

The album sounds quite incredible, the chords attain molten depths while the acoustics and leads simmer and soar through the bombastic strides. The band is out in full force yet emphasis is focused solely on the crafting of atmospheric rhythms and bloodsoaked, simple aggression. In short, it's not a far cry from their previous efforts. Just resurrected and re-invigorated for the 21st century. Unanimated prove once more that they're worth your time, and this album is a no-brainer for fans of Swedish black/death metal ala Dissection, Sacramentum, etc.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/unanimated08