Heir Corpse One is ready to embark.
Three years after their last embarkation, Rogga Johansson (guitar/vocals, Paganizer, Dead Sun, Eye of Purgatory, Furnace, Massacre, Megascavenger, Revolting, Ribspreader…) and Peter Svensson (bass, Cales, Assassin’s Blade, Void Moon…) called on Kjetil Lynghaug (lead guitar, Paganizer, Stass, Ribspreader…) and Marcus Rosenkvist (drums, Assassin’s Blade, To Descend, Anchorite…) for their next long-haul flight, Destination: Domination.
The band kicks off with the title track, Destination Domination, which firmly establishes its Swedish roots and dry but catchy groove under Rogga‘s roars, allowing for a few more piercing peaks from Kjetil‘s leads while his bandmates hold down the rhythm. The track quickly gives way to Undeath from Above, which adopts similar patterns, creating extremely jerky moments dedicated to headbanging, while the harmonics are slightly more numerous, rivaling the rhythm of Reaping Human Harvest, which clearly incites the most brutal mosh pit with its grimacing. We move on to Shelter in the Darkness, which slows down the pace a little, offering melancholic melodies that fit perfectly with these touches of calm and contrast with the simple but catchy moments, then we stay with effective patterns with Well of Blood. There’s nothing complicated about this track, apart from a unifying acceleration in the middle followed by an intense solo, then Thresher ups the ante with a new wave of frenzied Old School and heavy, straightforward palm mutes that made me want to bang my head against the table repeatedly. We slow down again for a short while with Mechanisms of Mortality, then return to cruising speed with a few more accessible, albeit disturbing, stages, before the machine accelerates again and returns to a mid-tempo approach on Motordead, combining abrasive tones with the usual hoarse growls, but also a few livelier passages. The final double feature consists of The Last Supper, a track with anguished guitars that go very well with the rhythmic base, followed by Undead Nation, the final track, which also remains in a sort of mysterious slowness to better strike with its breathless riffs between two eruptions.
Marked by the touch of its creator Rogga Johansson, Heir Corpse One follows in the footsteps of his many other projects, offering pure Swedish Death Metal. While Destination: Domination barely explores its full range of influences, it remains delicious.
80/100