When Bloodbath released Resurrection Through Carnage in 2002, the project already wore the flattering supergroup label. Bringing together musicians from Opeth and Katatonia, two jewels of the Swedish scene, the outfit set itself a perfectly clear mission: to resurrect the old school Swedish death metal of the early nineties, with passion, intimate knowledge of the subject and without ever falling into easy nostalgia.
A living tribute
This first full length is above all a genuine love letter to the Stockholm sound. It brings back the thick, buzzing guitar grain, the crawling riffs and the putrid atmosphere that directly evoke Entombed or Dismember. But Bloodbath never settle for servile copying: the band inject their own energy and a seasoned craft into a formula they know by heart.
Mikael Akerfeldt’s vocals, here all deep, cavernous growl, far from the nuances and clean singing he deploys in Opeth, anchor the record in a gleeful and utterly unashamed brutality. That vocal performance demonstrates the breadth of his range and his sincere love for the roots of the genre.
The pleasure of the riff
Resurrection Through Carnage is above all a genuine festival of effective and instantly deadly riffs. Anders Nystrom and his cohorts string together motifs with a fearsome sense of the hook and a constant generosity. Tracks like Breeding Death, drawn from the EP that launched the project, or Ways to the Grave, advance with a downright irresistible groovy heaviness.
The production, thick and resolutely organic, scrupulously respects the reference aesthetic while offering a welcome modern clarity that makes every riff punchy and legible. It is a delicate balance between fidelity to the model and contemporary rendering, perfectly negotiated.
A successful resurrection
Bloodbath played a genuinely important role in the renewed interest in classic Swedish death metal in the early 2000s, at a time when the genre seemed somewhat neglected in favor of other trends. This record reminded a whole scene of the timeless power of that formula and inspired many revivalist bands.
The project would later go through several vocalist changes, Akerfeldt being unable to devote himself fully to this side activity, but this first cornerstone remains without doubt the most spontaneous and exciting of the band’s entire discography.
It is not a revolutionary album, and at no point does it try to be one. It is a stylistic exercise executed to perfection, carried throughout by the obvious joy of seasoned musicians happily returning to their first love. A generous, direct and immediate record that delivers exactly on its promise. For anyone wanting to understand why the old Stockholm sound exerts such fascination, this record is a gateway as joyful as it is effective, and a model of the revivalist genre done well.
