LAETHORA

It's time for one of the year's first quality slab of old school Swedish melodic death metal, thanks to members of DARK TRANQUILLITY and THE PROVENANCE. LAETHORA's "March of the Parasite" succeeds smashingly by combining the classic Swedish style with modern sensibility and catchy songwriting, making it a genuine pleasure to experience for the entire 39 minutes.

In addition to the considerable Swedish death metal influence, consider a chunk of upper tier Polish death metal and a generous helping of the kind of delivery that makes BLOODBATH tunes so easy to digest. Vocalist Jonatan Nordenstam balances old school death metal growling with enunciated lyrics that make the tunes that much easier to absorb from the get-go.

The sound is most recognizable on "Parasite" with its raging delivery and a simple chorus that stays with you from the very first listen. Songs such as "Repulsive" continue the razor sharp attack, this time peppered with strong riffing and tempo variation. And speaking of variation, rather than sounding like 10 throwback tracks that can barely be distinguished from one another, "March of the Parasite" features several different moods and all-around strong songwriting. "Black Void Remembrance" is creepy as hell and even includes a chilling clean vocal section as light picking is juxtaposed against a crunching riff, while Nordenstam screams bloody murder. One can almost visualize the veins bulging from his neck as he shouts "you fucking bastards!" on "Y.M.B." This is seriously tormented stuff. Bits of keyboard accents are heard as well, most notably on the agony anthem "Facing Earth".

Enshrouded in darkness, driven by unrelenting death metal annihilation, and anchored in just the right amount of melody, "March of the Parasite" is sure to get high marks from critics and fans across the globe. This one just feels right.