Violence strikes with Leper Colony!
The band still features Marc Grewe (vocals, Insidious Disease, ex-Morgoth) and Rogga Johansson (guitar/bass, Paganizer, Echelon, Putrevore, Revolting, ex-Massacre…), Jon Rudin (drums, Dead Sun, Heads for the Dead, Just Before Dawn, ex-Massacre, ex-Wombbath…), and Håkan Stuvemark (guitar, Consumption, Wombbath, Ghoulhouse, ex-In Thy Dreams…), the band signed to Testimony Records is releasing Back To Primal Sludge, their third album, this year.
No surprises here with Madness Is a Kingdom, the sound is abrasive, the vocals are punishing, the riffs are catchy, and everything is designed so that the musicians, letting loose, give us a great time, just as we expected. My neck is already in action, and even though my neck muscles won’t be happy about it, the track is so energetic that its melodic roots carry us right through to These Blades, which picks up the same high-energy rhythm and hits with ferocity, just like Dead Soul Consortium, which incorporates some sharper harmonics to enhance its powerful tones. We’ll find some Thrash roots and a very Old School vibe, just like on Thrown to the Pigs, which offers a fairly heavy sound despite its obvious violence, harkening back to the heyday of Swedish Death Metal, while the title track Back to Primal Sludge will also hammer away at our minds, returning to a much rawer and, above all, highly energetic sound. The tone remains much the same with Flesh Grater, the next track, which will snap the necks of even the most reluctant listeners with its virulent approach; then the riffs thicken on Seelenjäger (“soul hunter” in Swedish), which adds a few darker, more oppressive touches to the obvious rage. Heaviness is once again the order of the day on Harness the Undead, which knows exactly where to strike to make its riffs impactful, but it’s ultimately Beneath the Fat and Gristle that wraps up the album with a direct, in-your-face sound, delivering less than three minutes of the uncompromising Death Metal we love.
There’s no doubt about it: Leper Colony knows how to handle Death Metal! We have that Old School touch paired with a determination to hit hard on Back To Primal Sludge, which, despite its relatively short length, remains powerful!
90/100