WOMBBATH – Agma
Transcending Obscurity Records
I got into this Swedish death metal act during their second era with the 2015 full length Downfall Rising. Now when I say "second era" it means WOMBBATH originally started out back in the early 90's. They ended up releasing a full length in 1993 and an EP in 1994. After that the band broke up until 2014 when lone original member Hakan Stuvemark gathered some like minded musicians and re-started the band.
So as I said the band re-started themselves with the 2015 full length Downfall Rising. Since then WOMBBATH has released two more full lengths of original material. Their last release, 2020's Tales of Madness, was a compilation of early tracks re-recorded by the new line up. That one came out on Transcending Obscurity Records.
On this the band's latest, WOMBBATH are still pushing the traditional old school Swedish death metal sound. But on a variety of cuts the band has decided to add some unconventional tweaks in order to expand/experiment with their sound. The band certainly doesn't waste time either letting the listener know that this isn't the band you once knew.
The band's grinding death metal onslaught get's a new paint job with clean sounding sheet metal like soloing. Is that a violin? There's also clean sounding screamed vocals. I'd call that a "Whatafuck" moment. Some other interestingly new developments are when the death grind as well as death n roll elements give way to plodding atmospheric touches with plenty of kick ass soloing. They also toss in some black metal tremolo picked melodies.
Without going into every facet of this album all I can say is repeating the obvious in "Whatafuck". To me the songs on here are less about progression and more about random carpet bombing on tradition. As far as the band goes their song craft/performance are excellent. Jonny Pettersson's gruff growled vocals are always amazing and I'll punch ya if you say otherwise.
But as much as Agma is damm interesting I have some problems. First off it's way over an hour in length featuring sixteen cuts. Basically it's a double album which for death metal is too much in my not so humble and not having enough time on my hands opinion. Secondly I'm a fan of their older stuff and see this as more of a weird experiment than a move to stay relevant in the modern age. Still if you're burnt out on OSDM and wanna hear progression then here you go.
LISTEN HERE:
https://wombbathdeath.bandcamp.com/album/agma-death-metal
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