If there was ever an album that made me want to finally go over the edge and take out my life's frustrations on society this is it. Sweden has given us so much in the way of good Death Metal these past few years, how could we ever ask for more? Let's not worry about it and just enjoy this latest release by what should now be considered among Sweden's elite Death Metal acts. The band's debut effort branded them with the Technical Death Metal label and while there are certainly some technical and complex applications on A Thousand Deaths, I don't want to make more of them than is warranted. Granted, they do some serious and torturous fret gymnastics from time to time but the core of this band is more of a nucleus of seething and hateful, precision Death Metal.
The album starts off with the atypical intro of combat sounds, much like SENTENCED did on Amok. However, don't expect a sudden burst of melodic Thrash. The opening track, "Children Of The Mushroom Cloud" blows out your aural cavities with complete nihilism and verbose misanthropy. A masterpiece of a Death Metal song I declare it! Its clear the band have not waivered in the least in the aggression department. DIABOLICAL's sound is still intact and even more abrasive this time around. The intial assault is a perfect tone-setting track as the entire album follows suit with one butchering song after the next. The band hit their peak with "Dead Angel's Choir" (you will wet yourselves over the opening riffs to this one!), and later, hints of melody crop up on "Under My Skin". Don't expect to much of that however, as the bulk of A Thousand Deaths lives up to its title - mean and nasty carnage-promoting Death Metal with highly articulated lead guitars! What I love most about this album, apart from its consistency and hate-inspired persona is the insane nature of the choppy riffing, which almost never gives the listener a chance to recover. This is simply relentless Death/Thrash, almost prototypical. All I could say to myself during the listen was, 'Damn these guys are fuckin' good...'. That might be a markedly conservative appraisal. DIABOLICAL are, at times, downright brilliant with their furious breakdowns and eviscerating intensity.

There is no point in trying to convince you, the reader, that this is worth the effort to obtain. If you liked the last outing you'll love this one. A Thousand Deaths is not far off from Synergy. In fact, the two albums compliment one another quite well and I can't say I like one more than the other. Well, I admit that this one has my blood pressure up a few points higher but then again, I've been playing this thing from AM to PM. Who can blame me? Find out why yourself.


John's rating: 7



[ Discography ] 

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Label: Scarlet | Item Code: MM 71270 | Country: Sweden | Year: 2002 | Genre: Death Metal

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Diabolical - Synergy

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