Leper Colony is ready to strike.
Recently formed by Marc Grewe (vocals, Insidious Disease, ex-Morgoth), Rogga Johansson (guitar/bass, Paganizer, Echelon, Massacre, Putrevore, Revolting…) and Jon Skäre (drums, Consumption, Defiatory…), the band called upon Alex Tartsus (De Profundis, Depravity, Sinister…) to create the artwork for Leper Colony, their first album, to be released in 2023 by Transcending Obscurity Records.
The band starts with The Human Paradox, a first composition with solid riffs which let recognizable and powerful hoarse vocals lead the charge with raw and catchy sounds. Leads perfectly fit with the Old School sound and piercing screams, then Perdition’s End comes to pick into dark and heavy sounds to intensify its rather slow jerky rhythmic. The track remains effective, taking advantage of an acceleration to place sharp harmonics, while The Surgical Undeadvors reveals them immediately before placing its heavy and energetic rhythmic. The crushing sound sticks as much to fast riffs as to slower parts, just like on Tar and Feathers and its Thrash influences which are adorned with worrying accents on choruses, but also when leads flood us, before letting the riffs crush us again, followed by Rapture Addict and its raw rhythmic completed by some heady and more complex parts. The Old School Death/Thrash roots are still there, giving this track a pure violence flavor, while Leper Colony, the eponymous track, unveils a rather dark but soothing and soaring introduction before returning to aggressiveness via screams. The melancholic dissonance still haunts the track, just like on A Flow So Greatly Macabre and its disturbing introduction followed by a wild acceleration that reminds us of the greatest Death Metal albums. Flesh Crawl Demise follows with a devastating acceleration which once again honors the solid blast as well as the fast tempo and vocal performances, and then the album ends with Gruesome End, a track which keeps a similar recipe, alternating fast riffs and some slower but equally violent parts.
An uninformed listener might mistake Leper Colony for just another Old School Death Metal project, but Leper Colony also reveals incisive Thrash influences and showcases the unique voice to create an explosive mix.
90/100