NOMINON

Still soldiering on as dedicated purists of the old-school Swedish death metal sound, NOMINON have stayed true since 1993 and "Monumentomb" is proof that they've no interest in straying from the chosen path. As it turns out, that's a very good thing, as "Monumentomb" is not only strongly representative of the style, but the Swedes have topped their previous effort, "Terra Necrosis", by fattening the sound, attacking with more viciousness, and bettering the songwriting. NOMINON won't convert the fence sitters nor show up their peers, but they will please fans and leave welts.

Pairing stone cold grooves with numerous blast-beaten speed assaults, "Monumentomb" succeeds with some fairly memorable songwriting and deliciously crunchy riffing, not to mention a distinct, buzzing bass sound that gives the songs extra oomph. Compared to "Terra Necrosis", the new album demonstrates an approach that puts more emphasis on individual track identity and (mostly) memorable choruses with no decrease in pure savagery. Helping that effort are vocals that sit front and center in the mix and come at you with malicious intent, taunting and challenging you to a fight at every turn Most interesting about the album is NOMINON's use of three vocalists, presumably because of the lack of success in finding a new permanent throat after Daniel Garptoft left the band. However, Erik Sahlström provides lead vocals on the vast majority of the tracks (seven in all),while Tore Stjerna (engineer/co-producer of the album at Necromorbus Studio) offers his voice on "Undead Beast", the song noteworthy for its loud, in-your-face chorus, and Johan "Barsk" Thornberg wraps things up with the album's most guttural performance on "Wrath of Shiva". The great part about it is that even though Sahlström seems the best fit, all three are first-class death metal vocalists and the album flow is surprisingly seamless, although it's not like we're talking in terms of wide ranging diversity here.

In the end, "Monumentomb" does the vaunted Swedish style proud and is unquestionably worthy of attention for any fan of the dark and chunky stuff. It ain't album-of-the-year material, but that's not the point. It is a disc made by Swedish death metal fans for Swedish death metal fans. Nothing more, nothing less.