EYE OF PURGATORY - The Lighthouse
Transcending Obscurity Records
The name Rogga Johansson has appeared on this site a lot. To say Rogga is the most prolific extreme metal musician from Sweden is an understatement. If you just had to take in all of the releases from the various bands he's fronted and the collaborations he's been involved with. You would be looking at a year's worth of music to digest, maybe more.
EYE OF PURGATORY is another project which he started in 2018. The Lighthouse is the second album. On this one Rogga, who on here handles guitars and vocals as usual, enlists some buddies for the fun. On bass is Jeramie Kling from VENOM INC. And on drums there's Taylor Nordberg from another one of Rogga's bands, RIBSPREADER. Nordberg also contributes on lead guitar as well as keyboards. Yes I did say keyboards.
Musically this is, as always, Swedish death metal with all the savagery and Boss HM-2 thickness. But to play around with it a bit EYE OF PURGATORY comes off as a throwback to classic melodic death metal of the 90's. Or better yet, classic melodic Swedish death metal that's not forgettable after a few listens. I'm not gonna name drop here but if you remember that era then you know what I mean.
Now aside from the riff salad by Rogga which is cool as fuck I like how the guitar leads flow through some of these cuts as opposed to biting your face off. The keyboard use is slight, in the background and is just allowed to give the songs depth. Nothing proggy or symphonic to bog things down although I think Rogga could do wonders with that genre style.
In a way this one reminds me a little of Rogga Johansson's solo album from 2019, Entrance to the Otherwhere. That one was a tour de force of melodic death metal worship with a better edge. I like this one better. It's a perfect release from beginning to end.
LISTEN HERE:
https://eyeofpurgatory.bandcamp.com/album/the-lighthouse-death-metal
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