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HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY
The Mortuary Hauntings

Pulverised (2024)
Rating: 5/10

Riff focused death metal is once again on the menu as prolific Swedish musician Rogga Johansson (Paganizer / Ribspreader / Furnace / Carve etc.) revisits his House By The Cemetary project who released their debut full-length album three years ago in the form of Rise Of The Rotten. For this latest effort, Johansson (guitar and bass) once again teams up with fellow journeymen Mike Hrubovcak (vocals, Hypoxia / ex-Monstrosity) and Matthias Fiebig (drums, Paganizer / Blodsrit / Carve).

Like a majority of Rogga Johansson’s projects there’s nothing technical on offer, just catchy straightforward death metal driven by a buzzsaw charge. Little of my attention span was required for this effort as the trio rips through 35 minutes of horror-obsessed material that follows similar patterns to other Johansson works. What you get here is bland, formulaic yet aggressive death metal that’s bereft of atmosphere and riddled with cliché.

Even during the early stages of this album being announced I knew what was coming; feisty Swedish styled death metal lacking identity and not helped in particular by the vocals, especially on a cut like ‘Tortured Severe’ where Mike Hrubovcak isn’t too far removed from Six Feet Under main man Chris Barnes.

This is a record lacking depth, which suggests to me that by being so prolific Johansson ran out of ideas a long time ago. The songs here seemingly bleed into one, with the likes of ‘The Realm Of The Cursed’ and ‘Infested’ reminding me somewhat of a Swedish Deicide, hitting like a freight train but with no last effect.

Some of the slower, mid-tempo tracks provide the most pleasure, especially ‘Opening The Gates Of Hell’ with its sinister passages, but House By The Cemetary just don’t have the flair or creativity to stand out, and I imagine that Johansson is probably happy with that. Slot this alongside the rest of his creations though and The Mortuary Hauntings is faceless.

Neil Arnold

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