Monday, November 26, 2018

THIRD STORM - The Grand Manifestation review



THIRD STORM - The Grand Manifestation

Dark Descent Records




There's something to be said with the phrase "never say die". Take Heval Bozarslan, vocalist and founding member of the Swedish blackened death act THIRD STORM. Back in 1986 Bozarslan and a couple of his teenage friends started THIRD STORM. They ended up putting out two demos but by 1988 the band called it quits. Bozarslan would later on start the death metal band SARCASM which were another act that took over a decade to get a proper release.


Now in 2014 Bozarslan and one past member of THIRD STORM got back together, got some other Swedish musicians involved and put out a two song EP, Taritiya Me, released in 2015, by Dark Descent Records. Now this is not the first time I've seen or heard about a musician who re-started a band from their past as a second chance. Sure it's a nice story but I've heard too many of em. But what made me really curious about this is that musician and author Daniel Ekeroth, the man who wrote the book (literally) on Swedish Death Metal, is involved and performs bass on here.


If one thing is obvious it's that Heval Bozarslan has had a few decades of extreme metal influences to dump into his musical stew and listening to this it shows. The Grand Manifestation is a blend of death, doom and thrash all thoroughly blackened with the char-coaled embers of the past. If this album is supposed to be a statement by Bozarslan then obviously it's that he wants it all musically that is. So fuck me running since I didn't hear their Taritiya Me EP. I was expecting (by way of the bio information) something along the lines of the inner space in-between NECROPHOBIC and DISSECTION. Instead I get BLOODBATH's long lost cousin.


Now don't get me wrong sure this is good stuff but then look at the talent here. The lineup has slightly changed since their EP. So long with the elders Bozarslan and Ekeroth you've got some young guns in guitarists David Eriksson of ANGUISH and Hasse Hansson, a journeyman of various swedish thrash acts. Add to that the versitile drum work of Alvaro Svanero who has been also drumming in SARCASM since 2017.


The bottom line here is that Bozarslan had a vision years ago and finally it's come to be. It's damm good and he's not finished since this release is supposedly part one of a trilogy. What sort of blackened brutality and chaotic doom will come about in the future?


http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-grand-manifestation

https://www.facebook.com/thirdstorm


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