SYN:DROM

Throw a few rocks out your living room window and you're likely to hit a band playing old school and Sunlight-ed Swedish death metal (and I don't just mean bands from Sweden). That has definitely been the case these past couple of years and a massive upsurge has occurred within the last year. And who can blame a band for wanting to play such a beloved style; it kills and kills again. However, Sweden in particular has always had far more to offer than dismemberment and entombing, occasionally turning the tables and playing a distinctly U.S. brand of death metal. Such is the case with SYN:DROM and a tightly wound USDM decimator called "With Flesh Unbound".

Less overtly mimicking than countrymen STRANGULATION (R.I.P.) who did a bang up CANNIBAL CORPSE impression, on "With Flesh Unbound" SYN:DROM builds tension with "Intro (Devoured)" and blasts off into a marginally tech-oriented maelstrom of USDM that often recalls the overwhelming brutality of HATE ETERNAL and occasionally the meticulousness of NILE (you can really hear it on "Winds of Disease"). Sickened crunch 'n squawk and plaster-cracking blasts meet furious six-string spirals and the godlike DM roar of Jonny Pettersson (who is rivaled only by DAWN OF DEMISE's Scott Jensen in the vocal department) is what's for dinner. The group comes up with an inventive off-kilter riff from time to time as well. The production is modern to be sure, yet does not sound cut-and-pasted, giving the whole affair the kind of intensity fans want to hear from the style.

A measure of distinction gets lost at times as one takes the 34-minute tour of "With Flesh Unbound", but it is not a serious bone of contention. A few songs, especially "The Marked One", do stand out as cases where the band took care to not lose sight of the memorable in favor of the assaulting. Good things are happening on "With Flesh Unbound" and the feeling one gets is that the only way SYN:DROM have to go is up.