PAGANIZER - Land of Weeping Souls
Transcending Obscurity Records
A little history for ya, years ago when this band's Scandinavian Warmachine full length came out I saw some music scribe mistakenly lump them in with all of those newer acts as part of what the media called the New Wave of Old School Swedish Death Metal Revival. That was in 2009 and PAGANIZER had been around for a decade already. I'm sure they felt honored by the press acknowledgement. Actually I doubt it. That's the problem with trends, revivals and flavor of the month picks by the media. They overlook acts that have been around for a while who've doing the same damm thing as well as being damm good at it.
So as PAGANIZER is close to celebrating a twenty year mark next year here is their tenth full length. Don't even ask me how many short form releases they have out, there are plenty plus compilation albums to boot. Mainman Rogga Johansson (guitars/vocals) has kept this band going since 1998. Ya gotta respect that as well as his work in so many other band projects. Land of Weeping Souls is the band's first new full length since 2013's World Lobotomy and also features newer band members Kjetil Lynghaug on guitar and Martin Klasen on bass. Longtime drummer Matthias Fiebig fills out the line-up
This new one is being billed as "their fiercest and tightest yet". I'm guessing the hype comes from the reaction to last years On the Outskirts of Hades four song EP which also came out on Transcending Obscurity Records. Be that as it may when you open up your album with a song that's a Pinhead quote, "Your Suffering Will Be Legendary", then yeah fierce is obvious. On a whole Land of Weeping Souls is a not a total throwback to the past but is more like an older band pulling up their boot straps and acknowledging the new with a verocity that is unmatched. While the first half of this release was decent then "The Insanity Never Stops" rips forth and all doubts are forgotten.
I could go on song through song but no. Rogga Johansson reminds me of VADER's Peter Wiwczarek, a veteran death metaller who gets better with age. On here his riffs and vocals almost sound like he's out to make a statement. The soloing by Kjetil Lynghaug adds a better dimension to the sound, it's old school with short sharp shocks of pain. This release reminds me of one by GRAVE a few years back. Basically another older Swedish death metal act (but my alltime favorite) who after a few lackluster releases put out one that just peeled facial skin off from the naysayers. The same thing works here.
https://tometal.com/
https://paganizer.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-weeping-souls-death-metal-2
https://www.facebook.com/paganizersweden/
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