Defenders Of The Faith, le forum Metal

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Like all gore-drenched sequels, demonic death metal supergroup BLOODBATH's fifth slice of morbid savagery comes even darker, nastier and sicker than before. It's been four years since "Grand Morbid Funeral", and Stockholm's shadiest death cult — with members drawn from metal luminaries PARADISE LOST, KATATONIA, OPETH and CRAFT — return with a new slab of old-school, HM-2 driven blackness: "The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn", due on October 26 via Peaceville.

Recorded by BLOODBATH and Karl Daniel Liden at Ghost Ward, City Of Glass and Tri-Lamb Studios during the first half of this foul year of our Lord, the album is the second with Nick Holmes (PARADISE LOST) on vocals. If "Grand Morbid Funeral" was a thick spray of deathly noise, on "The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn", it is the rotten, fetid state of the world and our inevitable doom that is casting a looming shadow over proceedings. With world leaders threatening nuclear annihilation in 140 characters over social media, capitalism tearing itself apart, a wilful march into a surveillance state via handy pocket spying devices, a shifting climate that appears to literally be trying to kill us… It's all fuelled BLOODBATH's newest ode to filth.

"What are we presenting with this album? Humanity's unfaltering march prone towards downfall," declares guitarist Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström (KATATONIA). "The threat to this world isn't from far beyond the sun, the enemy is right here, within the walls. Only the god of emptiness will survive us all. The arrow of Satan is drawn!"

Right from the opening notes of the scything "Fleischmann", this sense of impending horror is carved into the music. The brutal "Wayward Samaritan" is anything but merciful, while "Deader" is a truly morbid workout, and "Morbid Antichrist" summons the spirits of those two classic death metal outfits perfectly. By the time things reach an atomic conclusion on the evil rock'n'roll of "Chainsaw Lullaby", you'll have been sucked into BLOODBATH's unholy world forever.

There's an extra nasty layer on "The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn". This time, among the usual chainsaw riffs and blasts, the darkness of Blakkheim's words is also reflected in the addition of new guitarist Joakim Karlsson of Swedish black metal plague CRAFT. It's a step forward that's only given the band's already fearsome fangs extra rabid bite.

He's not the only extra face getting covered in gore. "Bloodicide" — quite literally meaning "The Killing Of Blood" — features a full house of British death metal guest stars, with CARCASS's Jeff Walker, BOLT THROWER/MEMORIAM singer Karl Willetts and CANCER's John Walker all lending their larynxes to the madness.

"It wasn't deliberately planned to be just british guests, but as it randomly turned out that way, it became a really cool feat!" laughs Blakkheim. "Nick [Holmes], Jeff, Karl and John are all legends respectively within the U.K. death metal scene and we're proud to bring them all together on our little old school soiree to tribute the days of old.

"There's no mitigating circumstances coming your way any time soon," he adds. "The world is a mad place full of darkness, horror, disease and terror! Hell on Earth is real and not just limited to fiction. The dark ages transcend all frontiers, ever present but yet unseen."

"The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn" track listing:

01. Fleischmann [03:38]
02. Bloodicide [04:56]
03. Wayward Samaritan [03:39]
04. Levitator [04:37]
05. Deader [04:06]
06. March Of The Crucifers [04:05]
07. Morbid Antichrist [04:05]
08. Warhead Ritual [03:38]
09. Only The Dead Survive [05:06]
10. Chainsaw Lullaby [03:20]

Bonus tracks on limited-edition CD

11. Ride The Waves Of Fire [03:48]
12. Wide Eyed Abandon [05:00]

The cover artwork was created by Eliran Kantor (TESTAMENT, SOULFLY, ICED EARTH) and can be seen below.

It’s time for another deep dive into the horrors of mortality and the foul side of the supernatural - It’s time for Survival Of The Sickest! The sixth full-length album from Bloodbath, Sweden’s undisputed masters of old school death metal, will be unleashed on September 9 via Napalm Records. This is death metal at its ugly best: vicious, unrelenting and irrevocably sworn to the black.

The world is in flames, and Survival Of The Sickest, produced by Bloodbath and co-produced and mixed by Lawrence Mackrory at Rorysound Studios, offers no respite from the horrors of reality. Instead, with the addition of new guitarist Tomas ‘Plytet’ Åkvik (Lik) onboard, Bloodbath’s latest and greatest album gleefully confronts the slavering ghoul lurking in the shadows, and treats him to ten songs of ripping death metal frenzy. Alongside Bloodbath’s official alumni, Survival Of The Sickest boasts a smattering of irresistible cameos from the great, good and ghoulish of the metal underground, including Barney Greenway (Napalm Death), Luc Lemay (Gorguts) and Marc Grewe (Morgoth).

Alongside its pre-order kickoff, Bloodbath have released the crushing new single and album opener, “Zombie Inferno”, a thrashing death metal assault set to draw the listener into a lunatic outburst of ferocity. The song breaks in with anxiety-inducing riffs and the insanely killer vocals of Nick Holmes, and is visually highlighted via a fast-paced, gory music video, acting as a tribute to the glory days of 80s splatter flicks.

Bloodbath on “Zombie Inferno“: "One man's struggle to rid the World of Zombie Infestation that seems to have inconveniently taken over the planet. Particularly, as he's just refueled his 1969 Dodge Super Bee 440."

Watch the official music video, directed by Ash Pears and produced by Ash Pears for AshTV, below.

From the thuggish brain-smash of opener “Zombie Inferno” to the bleak, obsidian ooze of closer “No God Before Me”, Survival Of The Sickest is the sound of a great band in blistering form. In contrast with The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn, which borrowed heavily from the blackened end of the death metal world, the new Bloodbath goes straight for the jugular in true old school fashion. With strong echoes of everything from Morbid Angel and Death to Deicide and Obituary, songs like the rampaging “Putrefying Corpse”, the disgustingly slow and heavy “Dead Parade”, and the deliciously twisted “Tales Of Melting Flesh” breathe fresh fire into an arcane, perpetually rotting formula.

Formed by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström (both of Katatonia), Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) and Dan Swanö (Edge Of Sanity) in 1998, Bloodbath devoted themselves to resurrecting the increasingly forgotten art of pure death metal. In 2014, they unveiled a new frontman - legendary Paradise Lost vocalist Nick Holmes, now redubbed Old Nick - and yet another macabre musical evolution. With a line-up of Renkse, Nyström, Per ‘Sodomizer’ Eriksson (ex-Katatonia), Martin ‘Axe’ Axenrot (ex-Opeth) and Holmes, "the only way to go was grim.” On Survival Of The Sickest, Bloodbath evoke their most horrifying sonic scenarios to date, from the death-by-munching nightmare of “Malignant Maggot Therapy”, to the murderous nihilism of “Affliction Of Extinction”. A glorious comeback from a legendarily wicked musical force, Survival Of The Sickest provides yet more proof that Bloodbath are the kings of the old school.

Bloodbath add: "If there was a declaration of goods attached to this album, it would say Florida death metal exported from Sweden."