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CONSUMPTION
Necrotic Lust

Hammerheart (2022)
Rating: 8/10

When mentioning death metal and Sweden in the same sentence it’s often the case that we’ll be dealing with a rather straightforward outing, and to some extent that applies here with the second full-length offering from Consumption.

However, while a lot of bands since the early 90s have been more than happy to adopt the Entombed, Carnage, Dismember etc. sound, Consumption feels more dynamic and less generic, and that’s down to the gurgling vocal varieties expressed by mainman Håkan Stuvemark who, while still a standard death metal vocalist of sorts, keeps up the gargling of the grotesque variety so as not to sound like just another L-G Petrov imitation.

Necrotic Lust has a decidedly rotten flavour and stench which I like and the tracks, all nine of them, drift nicely between doomy trudges of real graven menace to the more obvious blasts of aggression, and yet it’s never a stale typically Swedish rendition.

With opener ‘Suffering Divine’ there’s a strong organic mix, while ‘The Last Supper’ energetically gallops along in more formulaic fashion. There’s a lot of vim to this record, maybe it’s in the bass so as to give the record an almost full-bodied approach, but what is clear is that the band realises it doesn’t have to always be about aggression and so the more measured segments, such as on ‘The Last Supper’, really dig their filthy nails in.

Jeff Walker of Carcass provides extra meat with guest vocals on the excellent ‘Ground Into Ash And Coal’. It’s one of the best tracks on the record which rolls with ominous aplomb and really does reek of that Carcass style of putrefaction as those riffs grind bones and spit lumps of splattered flesh. Walker’s tone really fits into the Consumption style and when the deeper growls of Stuvemark do emerge you realise just how guttural and deep this opus is.

‘Twisted Shaped Reality’ hammers the hardest and is a steady yet grinding expression featuring the best vocal blurts the album has to offer. But within the squelching abomination of sound there’s always a strong degree of melody, and that’s what makes this album so engrossing.

Consumption knows the ingredients necessary to make this opus not just another standard Swedish death metal opus, so if you like Carcass blended with the more grotesque side of Swedish death metal then I highly recommend this one for the chopping list!

Neil Arnold

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