INEVITABLE END

This is what we call a good 'ole teeth rattler. On "The Severed Inception", Sweden's INEVITABLE END assaults the senses with a constant barrage of jackhammer drumming and ear melting riffage. The first seconds of the opening title track overwhelm with the kind of intensity one hears right off the bat when an ORIGIN album is slipped into the player, a quality that is maintained for the duration and paired with characteristics from the likes of HATE ETERNAL and, to some degree, BEHEMOTH, except you can actually hear the kick drums on releases from all three of those bands. It is one of the only real issues on "The Severed Inception" though.

Where "The Severed Inception" veers off from the path beaten by the aforementioned bands and their ilk is through the incorporation of twisted riff shifts and dissonant licks that serve to spice up the dish and make it quite tasty. That and the absolutely maniacal (and relatively intelligible) growls and shrieks of vocalist Andreas Gerden make for an interesting sonic escapade. "Embracing the Origin" is representative of the textured and varied approach to death/grind with its BEHEMOTH brutality, monster riff switches and a spoken section from Gerden. Once in a while the sickening layers of dissonance and angularity vaguely remind of countrymen CROWPATH, usually in spurts. There is just something in these compositions that is inherently dangerous and keeps the listener on edge at all times.

Finally, the lyrical content is rather unusual for such an extreme act. Seemingly pro-Christian, lyrics like these from "Persevering Excitement" ("Christ, the truth — he is the right hand's pride"),are another unexpected twist. The lyrics to other tunes are grayer. But whatever, to each his own I suppose. In the final analysis, "The Severed Inception" is another strong offering in a year that is turning out to be a stellar one for Relapse Records .