Album Review: Bloodbath - Survival Of The Sickest

As I have mentioned many times over the years, death metal and I don't have the best relationship. Though I have tried many times to get into it, the severe lack of melody and hook factor have made it nearly impossible for me to become a fan. Making things even worse is that some of my first exposure to death metal was through some of the original members of Bloodbath, also including the band's first album, which just so happened to be about as good as I think the genre can be done. So when I started out at the top, everything that came after has been a disappointment.

Bloodbath has become more stable since Nick Holmes joined, but this era of the band is perhaps the least interesting one yet. The truly horrendous guitar tone of the first record was so ridiculous it was amazing, and Mikael Akerfeldt and company delivered some truly hook-laden songs. "Like Fire" is one of the catchiest death metal songs I've ever heard, and it may have single-handedly ruined the entire genre for me. After his hiatus from the band, they have focused on being more of a true death metal band, where the camp factor has been stripped away. That was not for the best, if you ask me.

When the band took all the fun out of the music, all that's left is the crusty exterior. Like a loaf of bread, that might look the part from a distance, but it's hollow and unsatisfying. Let's look at the opening track here, "Zombie Inferno". The band rips through some flashy guitar licks to open the song, and Holmes sounds fine growling his way through the verses, but the 'chorus' to the song is just him screaming the title a couple of times. It doesn't have any melody to it, and even the rhythm of it is boring.

The vocals might as well not even be there, since they add nothing to the composition. I like guitars too, but a bunch of riffs is not a satisfying song. The haphazard way they get put together needs something over the top to tie them all into a coherent song, and that's where the band struggles most. It doesn't really make much sense, since I know at least the members of Bloodbath who are also in Katatonia know damn well how to write a song. Why they don't carry that over to this project is a mystery.

Or maybe it isn't. Since Katatonia is a very emotionally heavy project, and their records often take considerable time and energy to complete, Bloodbath is the fun side-project where they bang things out quickly and don't overthink what they're doing. If that's the case, they it makes sense why these songs aren't the most captivating compositions. They guys want to make some noise, and get away from their main gigs. Investing what it would take to make this record what it could be would be anathema to the whole point of it.

Personally, I miss the days when it sounded like the band was having a blast paying homage to their influences. They went from celebrating the old guard to being the old guard, and having to live up to that has sucked a lot of the life out of this. Life... death metal... yeah, that was unintentional.

Anyway, the point I'm making is that I'm the wrong person to judge whether this is good death metal for people who are into death metal. I can only say what I think of it as someone not predisposed to liking this style. That predisposition has not been changed.