While the new and third album of Vanhelgd from Sweden has been put on repeat for the fourth time, I have to admit the accompanying information that was spread to promote this album, is 100% correct. After the full-lengths “Cult of Lazarus” (2008) and “Church of Death” (2011), Vanhelgd have created the, according to some, career-important third album and brought their Old School Death Metal to perfection. They manage to use different elements of extreme metal scenes throughout the years, and give it a “Vanhelgd Approval”-stamp. The traditional SweDeath trademark is definitively present and can be considered as the foundation of their obscure hymns, but they also shop in the early At The Gates department and Asphyx section. And while checkin’ out, they went by the UK Doom/Death Metal sale. For example, at the beginning of opening track “Dödens Maskätna Anlete” you will hear a My Dying Bride’s “Cry of Mankind” kinda melody. The icing on the cake is the dark atmosphere on this album. With tracks like “Ett Liv I Träldom”, “Where all Flesh is Soil” and “May the Worms have Mercy on my Flesh”, they will even convince the cynical ones out there, who are just tired of every Old School Death Metal band from Sweden nowadays. Nothing less than a great album! (Ricardo)
Vanhelgd – Relics of Sulphur Salvation
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review | July 10, 2020