The next in a line of upper-tier old-school death metal reviews for the CVLT. What we have here is a band called Atavisma and their Where Wolves Once Dwelled mini-album. Some Swedeath doom perhaps. More labels for the uninitiated. If it helps, the guitar grit is buzzsaw-riffic in the Swedeath style. They never burst out blasting, going Stockholm beat on our collectively-kicked asses! It’s a lot of slower downtuned riffs that roll like Jag Panzers through the metropolis, plowing through resistance and barricades made of steel barbed-wire and human shields.
Fine collection of shredded riffs, providing emphasis on how heavy the buzzsaw-effect is on a single string. There are only four tracks on this slow-moving beast, and the beast is up for a feast. Atavisma come out at night like wolves smelling poser-blood. Jack this up full volume for a nice time sending trendies to their dance clubs for safety.
Yes, the riffs are mostly mid-paced to slow, but let’s not cry while peeling raw onions, metal freaks! This is some heavy buzzsaw riffery that’s ripping clean into flesh. The leads are haunting, and the vocals are ultra-guttural. I’m frothing at the mouth right now as I listen to this four-track piece of obscene heaviness.
Label: Nihilistic Holocaust
This is out on cassette. So cassette fanatics will dig this necro-as-the-grave death metal stench. Let’s play Darwinist. You play your At The Gates records while I play this EP and slay your rotting carcass.
I digress. Back to the music – Atavisma pick up speed for sections on track two, “Forsaken.” Then, the lurching double-bass swings the blade on the pendulum down the pit! When the band slow down, these insane little riffs are catchy enough to put me on Warfarin.
They strum these gargantuan buzzsaw riffs all the way to Sweden. On track three, title track “Where Wolves Once Dwelled,” the song starts out with a little acoustic guitar bit that doesn’t sound out-of-place at all. Then, they crank up the guitars and the drums steady the pace for the funeral march. The acoustic section comes back to end the song on a high note.
The final track has drums rockin’ the beat and an opening riff that bleeds mainstream music dry. Mostly mid-tempo, “Nature’s Warfare” slays the poser with style. Don’t start thinkin’ Swedeath is dead by any means, metalheads. Atavisma needs repeat listens. If you don’t dig this, you’ve got as much good taste as a man stuck in the Alaskan wilderness.
The tempos do change, but there are few fast sections. When the shredding picks up and the Boss HM-2 cranks out so much fuzz, its hard not to love this style of music. This is Swedeath doom for fans intent on running track times through the marsh.
