Dismember – Death Metal

Judging from the lens of 2024, naming your album ‘Death Metal’ might seem a bit redundant or silly. Yet Dismember had a very good reason to do so at the time. Back in 1997, the Death Metal scene was in a bit of decay – particularly in Sweden. Many of the founders of the genre had jumped ship or broken up as well as people being more transfixed with neighboring Norway and their Black Metal scene. The only form of Death Metal people were paying attention to was the Melodic Death Metal scene coming from Gothenburg.

In the midst of this environment, Dismember decided to return to their more traditional Death Metal sound after experimenting slightly with Death N Roll on ‘Massive Killing Capacity’. Their label, Nuclear Blast, was less than pleased with the result and were urging them to go for a more commercial sound. The quintet, one to never give a shit about trends and fed up with the state of affairs, decided to name the album ‘Death Metal’ not just as a proud descriptor of the album – but a giant fuck you to the industry. Unfortunately, the album did not fare too well at the time, not just an issue of people not caring about Stockholm Death Metal, but also being hindered by a production that didn’t suit it. Part of the reason was it was Fred Etsby’s first attempt at producing and he is the first to admit he made mistakes. Lucky for us, as part of the re-issues, this album was re-recorded in 2023 by Patrick Engel and we get to enjoy it in its full glory.

Listening to the re-mastered version of this album in a way feels like finally slotting the lost piece of a large puzzle, because of ‘Death Metal’ Dismember deliver what they know the best – an extremely muscular, uncompromising affair of Swedish Death Metal. What is different about ‘Death Metal’ is that it ramps up slightly the melodicism that was always present in their sound. Yet the presence of harmonized riffs is done to simply add another layer of musicality that does not detract away from the savage nature of this release – the melodies never fall into the more saccharine territory that was beginning to take place with the Gothenburg scene. These moments are well balanced with the more punkish, Autopsy-esque passages that reverberate. Tracks like ‘Misanthropic’ are a good example of how Dismember balance these influences, functioning almost like a missing link between Stockholm and Gothenburg.

The other aspect this record has benefitted massively from with the remaster is invigorating the guitar tone. While many of love Swedish Death Metal for many reasons, one of the chief ones has always been the potent chainsaw sound that is produced by the HM2 pedal. The original mix inadvertently neutered the tone, which was one of the reasons I feel ‘Death Metal’ did not get the praise it deserves. This is no longer the case as the remaster does an excellent job of putting at the forefront, it really shines in the more mid-paced tracks such as ‘Stillborn Ways’ and ‘Bred for War’ which convey the aural devastation it brings.

What has made Dismember such a stalwart band was their timeless commitment towards producing their brand of high quality, no thrills Death Metal. This album will always serve as a testament of how bands should not waver in the face of difficult times. It must not have been easy to get people to care about an album like this in 97, much less with an almost hostile label and an environment where many of their peers were experimenting with different sounds – but fads and trends are temporary, Death Metal is forever.