The Fathomless Mastery

It's common to talk about "The Fathomless Mastery" as "the weakest" in Bloodbath's discography, but it would be wrong to think that the release was a total blunder and the reason that the band would not make sense to continue. The weakness of "The Fathomless..." Bloodbath stems rather from the fact that the two previous albums breathed "new life" into Swedish death metal quite well and at the same time were full of a large number of hits, while here the majority of songs do not make an amazing impression, and next to it nice fragments also includes some medium ones, not too thrilling and sometimes even too lightweight for this band.

Moving on to the most important one, on "Fathomless..." nothing is surprising anymore (a different sound too, about which at the end of the review), the band only recorded a set of tracks that fit well with the name Bloodbath. This does not mean, of course, that this time they did something completely bland. It's just that "Resurrection Through Carnage" and "Nightmares Made Flesh" were so good that the musicians themselves decided not to go beyond what is known - they recorded music only for fans of previous releases. As usual, the (super)group had a few major reshuffles, Dan Swanö and Peter Tägtgren left the band, but came Per "Sodomizer" Eriksson and Mikael Åkerfeldt returned to his position.

The songs themselves - as I mentioned - may not be captivating, but they do not bring any shame to the band and can interest. The best in this list are, among others "Mock The Cross" (heavily inspired by Morbid Angel), "Drink From The Cup Of Heresy", "Process Of Disillumination", "Devouring The Feeble" and "Slaughtering The Will To Live", which is quite a lot in the context of the "weaker" album. There could only be more hits like "Mock The Cross" here, because you can hear that the group definitely feels the best in playing like this.

I don't really like the production on "The Fathomless Mastery", as for my hearing it's too clean and not fully suited to this style. In this edition, the instruments have gained in readability and selectivity, but on the other hand, on the two previous discs it was much better balanced between the characteristic Swedish sound. Of course, there is no question of failure, it's still Bloodbath and you know who's playing here, but in the case of such good previous albums, you could count on more.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/03/bloodbath-fathomless-mastery-2008.html

Now, I'm not normally the sort of 'center of the universe' critic who thinks entirely in absolutes and rants endlessly for pages about those opinions which deviate from my own. I don't haphazardly slap a zero on a record just because a friend of a friend's metalcore sister who watches MTV once said At the Gates sounded 'pretty sweet', nor do I shower glowing praise upon every 11th generational extreme metal record shat down the pipe, just because this or that forum/clique/club/a-hole thinks its cool to wear the patch this month. I know you've all got your Neil Diamond vinyls stashed away in that closet, fuckers! That said, I would find it incredibly difficult to take seriously anyone who can look me in the eye and tell me they think a Bloodbath album doesn't bring at least SOMETHING to the table that they enjoy. Again: no absolutes. They do not by any means write timeless, legendary albums like Left Hand Path, Realm of Chaos or Altars of Madness, but to deny that they've got their fingers on the blueprints to what makes an 'old school' death metal song sound brutal, fun and inspired without the usual stupidity would be a crime. The fact that they kickstarted the project well before whatever latest round of Dismember or Morbid Angel clones this or that cyber-posse holds dear this week, is just icing on the victim's corpse...

Sure, the Swedish veterans might have an inherent recipe for success. They probably have an advantage due to the members' participation in other, more financially independent acts. They may actually give a shit about not having the production sound like it came out of a dumpster in a trailer park, and have the means and connections to make it happen (even within their own foster). Yeah, so what? They put in the work those many years, and they reaped the rewards. The truth is, there isn't a member of this band who hadn't participated on some fantastic records long before this team up was conceived, and it's just not a surprise to me that I haven't met a Bloodbath long player that I didn't get a kick out of. 'Commercializing retro death metal'? With three full-length albums in 16 years? Hardly. At any rate, The Fathomless Mastery is another jewel in the crown of what makes this group so consistent. They care about what they're doing to the point that, even at their most conservative or uninspired, like a loping 2-3 chord groove which far too many bands have made entire careers out, they manage to put some small quality spin, be it a bend, measure-ending note choice, or a quick transition to snap the listener right back to intention and not repeatedly bludgeon him/her with the blandness. This is also a further transformation of their sound, and not for the worse: Resurrection Through Carnage was raw and primordial 1990 Swedish death metal, Nightmares Made Flesh took that and implanted a cleaner character with better riffs and structure, and this disc applies a slightly more polished sheen of technicality and variety which by no means detracts from the core concept.

Is it a paean to Dismember, Carnage and Entombed? To an extent, and that was clearly the impetus behind the band in the late 90s; but I actually got more of an impression of earlier Necrophobic meets faster Hypocrisy with some Grave-like grooves, with the obvious Floridian roots exposed (which could be said of almost any death metal group). Techniques are typical: memorable, textured tremolo patterns burst across the sepulcher-scape or slow to a mid-paced, churning cemetery swagger, while the grooves are well built but painfully simple, to the point that they're all going to evoke instant callbacks to the audiences' favorite genre records of old, without too much finger pointing. Pacing is evenly distributed in most of the songs, not to mention the album as a whole, and there's always going to be some rhythmic pattern in there that you didn't quite expect, to keep it fresh and imposing even when there's no denying its paraphrased origins. Mikael Åkerfeld's growling might not be to everyone's taste, but he definitely sounds more sinister and excitable than you'd expect given his more ponderous, meandering past gutturals over the harder Opeth material. Per and Blakkheim don't attempt to assuade the listener with their technical capability, but instead focus on rounding out each rhythmic script with stylish leads and what must be their clearest guitar tone yet, more on the level of the Unblessing the Purity EP than anything previous. Riffs and drums generate atmosphere through both their impenetrable, unerring confidence and just the right relish of reverb to tie it all together.

All without sounding wimpy, plastic, or over-processed. The chords still have enough edge to them that those into the older records, or really anything from the Swedish mainstays (Unleashed, Entombed, Grave, etc) would approve, and they certainly continue the Cannibal Corpse/Malevolent Creation influence that I felt pretty strongly on the EP. Renkse's bass tone here sounds positively livid even though it still tends to disappear into the rhythm guitar riffing patterns, and Martin Axenrot is nearly mechanical by this point, though he keeps the upper range of the kit splashy and rough enough to contrast the robotic consistency with which he hammers out the kicks and tom rolls. I personally enjoyed the constant, dour and melancholic sense of melody exploding everywhere...it only takes a simple stretch of notes to give the tunes that added depth. I also loved the tendency to briefly squirm into a more technical/brutal area with those mid-90s squeals built into the riffing brickwork/grooves ("Mock the Cross" being the prime example). So too must I point out for a band that was put together mostly for 'fun', the lyrics are just as serious as you'd expect from most top end death metal (Vader, etc) without traipsing entirely into torture/gore porn territory. Over all I'd consider them the equal of Deicide and Morbid Angel with a few memorable song titles like "Wretched Human Mirror".

This isn't quite as good as Nightmares Made Flesh, if only because the riffs on tunes like "Year of the Cadaver Race" are their best yet, but certain tunes here like "Mock the Cross", "At the Behest of Their Death" or the choppy, nearly djentish-prefaced "Devouring the Feeble" are all just as awesome as when I first tore the plastic off my copy, and I'd be hard-pressed to find a runt anywhere in the litter. So I dig it only a fraction less than the sophomore. It's death metal for just about anyone who actually likes Swedish, Polish or older US death metal, throwing in obvious nods to dozens of forerunners without trying to bite them off 100%. This isn't a case of 'let's remake Life is an Everflowing Stream or Dark Recollections directly, but chucks them into the same cauldron as a hundred other 1987-1995 inspirations and gets to work honoring in lieu of robbing. Bloodbath sounds like other bands, but it also sounds like Bloodbath. I could name two dozen trending underground heroes that can't say the same, and so could you. Well worth hearing, and if you've given the group a pass due to not digging Katatonia or Opeth or October Tide or whatever honest or political/scenester reason, then give them another try. There is surely some common ground here you'll enjoy whether you dub yourself a fan of new or old death metal.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

One thing which I've learned about supergroups is not to expect them to be the sum of the parts, in terms of both quality and stylings of the music. If anyone was hoping that Shrinebuilder were going to top Neurosis and Saint Vitus then they were bound to be dissapointed with the end product So approaching a band like Bloodbath, consisting of a who's-who from the last twenty years of Swedish extreme metal, it's good just to expect some quality metal rather than a genre-defining band like Opeth.

The end product is pretty sweet indeed. The music is more modern than old-school death (the triggered drums and gut-wrenching pinch harmonics on "Mock The Cross" are a clear Morbid Angel tribute), and sometimes exibiting the trademark Dying Fetus groove, but without including the frequently unnecessary sweep picking self-indulgefests. Unmistakeably 21st century-sounding (for the better or worse depending on your viewpoint), sticksman Martin Axenrot showcases beautifully precise and brutal drumming, straddling the line between sounding too triggered and too laboured perfectly, whilst the guitars crush and squeal in blasphemous cacophany as you'd so desire. New lead guitarist Per Eriksson puts in some tasty leads, particularly at the end of "Hades Rising", and the star of the show, Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt performs his trademark roar to perfection. I've been listening to this whilst slaughtering people on Hitman: Blood Money, and it has provided the most perfectly lurid soundtrack - a sincere compliment to the music indeed. Overall, it's nothing particularly groundbreaking or innovative, but very enjoyable nonetheless.

taken from my blog:
manehead.blogspot.com

Old school death metal. Everyone raves on and on about it. The old gods -- Morbid Angel, Obituary, Dismember, Suffocation, and sundry -- are still worshipped, and rightfully so. Bloodbath, a Swedish semi-supergroup, was seemingly created to inject old school death metal into the modern death-lite that infests our ears like so many mites.

But Bloodbath seems to have taken on a life of its own. I look on the group now as a serious foray into death metal. It represents a bridge between old school and the modern day offerings. Say what you will, but Bloodbath is where Mikael Akerfeldt always should've been. On The Fathomless Mastery, his vocals are truly outstanding. He's kept far away from anything resembling songwriting, so quite naturally, there's no Opethish clean parts. No, this is balls-to-the-walls brutal f'ing death metal.

The riffs and the guitar tone, unlike Bloodbath's debut LP, are perfect. It's not 100% true to the infamous Swedish chainsaw tone, but the influences are noticeable to connoisseurs of Entombed or Dismember. The album is structured in such a way as to barrage you with a large number of relatively short songs, which is something for which I took points off. The solos are pure Swedish death -- traces of melody, but invoking melancholy, despair, and horror, rather than sunshine and daisies (Necrophagist, I stare in your direction).

By far, the highlight of the album is Mock The Cross. The song is simple and uncomplicated, flying in the face of modern fretboard wankery. But to me, the song's purpose is ratcheting up the tension towards a creepy-as-fuck ending.

The album is a great listen for anyone, especially Opeth fans who feel cheated by Mikael's tendency to water down the death metal.

Swedish death metal supergroup Bloodbath have returned with their 3rd LP "The Fathomless Mastery" and it's intention to bring back dirty, heavy old-school DM from those (mostly other Swedish bands) that have thought our death metal is meant to be nice and clean and accessible to all. No I say! Death Metal is a firm middle finger to those who want subtlety and pleasantries in their music; a belief Bloodbath have not wavered from and will foreseeably never do so. Peculiarly, given that Bloodbath have long been lauded for being as Swedish as an IKEA salesman with a penchant for Abba, they actually sound more American than ever, and the result is the best Bloodbath album yet.

By American sounding I clearly mean Morbid Angel sounding as at times during "The Fathomless Mastery" one could easily believe they are hearing content from the long-awaited new 'I' album from the legendary Floridians. "Mock The Cross" I assume is actually a cover of a Morbid Angel tune from the "Covenant"/ "Domination" era that never made it on to either those records; that or Bloodbath have no shame of hiding whom has influenced their decision to rock out from their day jobs involved in Opeth and Katatonia (mainly). This MA similarity is amplified through Mikael Åkerfeldt's throaty growls showing severe derivation from Mr. David Vincent himself as well as the groove and blast that forms the basis of every track bar none. Much like MA and Incantation, Bloodbath know that guitar talent, which they obviously possess by the bucketload, can be used to create evil and heavy sounding DM that doesn't have to run the route of blasting incessantly for Satan, shown through "Process Of Disillumination" and "Mock The Cross". The always enjoyable art of blasting is of course is well presented elsewhere though - "Treasonous" baring a leading BM riff that wouldn't have been out of place on Marduk's brutal classic "Nightwing" and in "Drink From The Cup Of Heresy" some severe grinding that reminds one of old Entombed and Dismember (ok, so it's not all American-sounding!)

Up until now I had always been skeptical that had Bloodbath been a mere 'group' rather than 'supergroup' their popularity would be considerably smaller than has proven to be. Since the visceral brutality of debut EP "Breeding Death" in 2000 the two following LP's I thought had been so-so affairs: containing some great tunes ("Eaten" and "Outnumbering The Day" the pick of the lot) buried amongst many more standard death metal offerings. "The Fathomless Mastery" will show anyone though that Bloodbath can stand on their own two feet without having to ask "oh yeh, that brutal band Mikael Åkerfeldt's in right?” It's never going to be album of the year stuff but for unashamed backwards viewing this is a real treat.

Originally written for Rockfreaks.net

I’m not sure what it is, but most everything that has some connection to old-school European death metal comes off pretty good, and often great. It must be some sort of golden touch. That brings me to this album, “The Fathomless Mastery”, which has a golden touch if there ever was one.

Bloodbath may have started off as a tribute to other old-school European death metal bands like Dismember and Entombed, but the bands effort to truly make every release different from one another has worked out extremely well. While I can’t really go through the bands previous efforts (that would take a REALLY long time for me to go into detail about), this album comes off as an old-school European death metal band heavily influenced by American death metal bands. Between the moments where they rely on Dismember and Morbid Angel tremolo picked riffs to pull the songs along is the Cannibal Corpse trill riff in “The Process of Dissimulation” and the Suffocation style technical runs between the chugs in “Slaughtering the Will to Live”. The strongest Morbid Angel similarity comes in “Mock the Cross”, slow churning monster with low-end harmonized guitars. It’s not just the well executed moments that sound like they could be long lost moments from some of the top-tier bands, it’s the moments of pure inspiration between them that carry Bloodbath to the top of their game, and in this instance the most audible aspect are the melancholic melodies on top of supporting guitars. Could that be a carry over from Katatonia? It’s difficult to say, but those melodies are certainly very different from when Dismember switches gears to go into Iron Maiden territory.

When I’m listening to this album, there are no questions. I’m right there, living in the moment, feeling the monumental passion pour off, and getting caught under some of the most massive hooks that have come this way in a long time. When songs hold on to you this well, you just wish it would last longer. Alas, the songs from “The Fathomless Mastery” come off as a bit short, even at 3 or 4 minutes due to the fact that you’ll hear a really cool passage only once or twice, making me wish they’d turn 11 great short songs into 8 great long songs.

Originally posted at www.waytooloud.com

Ah.

Bloodbath. The Swedish Death Metal 'Surpergroup' composed of members from Opeth, Katatonia, Diabolical Masquerade and Witchery.

With such talented musicians and creative minds, you'd [i]think[/i] this band was capable of creating amazingly brutal and modernized forms of the 'old school' style of Death Metal. However... this release falls completely short. I'm actually VERY disappointed that I've had to give this album a rating below, at the very least, an 80% -- and if you read the majority of reviews I've contributed to this site, you'll notice that I'm a positive reviewer and am quite easy to please.

What made this release a 'must listen' for me was Mikael Akerfeldt. I'm not an Opeth fan, but is actually Opeth that sparked an interest in this band, simply because I've always wanted to hear Mikael's vocals -- which are stunningly deep -- used in their full potential sans the shitty melodic riffs and clean singing. His vocals are used at mid-range, the same useless Opeth tone, throughout the whole album. There's rarely a single vocal line where Mikael decided to really bellow out a deep growl. In fact, I believe the only song where this is accomplished is "Iesous", after the chorus of "Eeso, Yeshua, Iesous", where Mikael growls "Die By Our Rage!", he lets it loose. I engaged into purchasing this album and listening to this band solely for that purpose, and it falls completely short.

I was, and still am, disappointed. Not only in the vocal aspect, but also in the sheer musicianship of this album. Everythign is mid-tempo, lots of groove riffs, and barely any blasting going on; this album fails to deliver, yet again.

Guitar-wise, "The Fathomless Mastery" is full of tremolo scales, 'chug-a-lug-' rhythms and a few very decent solos. However, there is nothing too inspiring. Though, I'm guessing since Mr. 'Blakkheim' has been writing useless riffs since his Diabolical Masquerade days, this is something to be expected, despite the fact that this band plays an entirely different style of music. The bass is... just there, really. Half the time, it's drowned out by the wall of guitars. The production of this album, while not being bad, is particularly thin. As if they held back on it during the mix/mastery stage of this album's finalization. The drums are thin, also. The foot pedals are barely noticeable, and the snare is just plain awful sounding.

This is... a real disappointment, once again. I'm truly at a loss for words for a description of this album. I expected much better, but was let down. While there are some decent songs on this album, the whole thing is essentially useless. It's become background noise, along with other petty albums such as this, when playing 'Left 4 Dead' on my Xbox.

Decent Songs: Process Of Disillumination, Mock The Cross, Iesous, Devouring The Feeble, Hades Rising

I’m not going to bother delving into the supergroup status of Sweden’s Bloodbath. If you’re on this site, you know what the band is all about. This is the band’s third release this year after the terrific Live album, The Waken Carnage and the ep Unblessing the Purity. Now I loved that live album and thought it a terrific collection of the band’s finest moments and was really looking forward to this new album. However, the problem with the album is the same as with all of their full length releases.

Bloodbath has consistently failed to deliver that knockout punch on their albums. Sure, there are some great songs but overall their albums have been inconsistent. It’s the same story with The Fathomless Mastery. There are some terrific songs like Slaughtering the Will to Live which harks back to the glory days of Swedish death metal and the truly awesome Treasonous which seems like a slight departure for the band, while on the superb Iesous they sound like a completely different band with it’s opening riff and very groove oriented direction. The songs on the album also tend to go more towards American death metal than the Swedish style of old with Deicide and Morbid angel coming across in the songs.

The songs are also let down to a certain degree by the glossy and clean production. There’s no dirt underneath the fingernails of this album. The guitars sound smooth and overall the whole sound is sterilized. Not something I want from my death metal. On the plus side, Mikael Åkerfeldt’s vocals are terrific and the drumming from Martin "Axe" Axenrot is top class.

At the end of the day, I don’t think too many fans of the genre are going to be complaining about The Fathomless Mastery. It’s a solid death metal album and while it may not bring anything new or memorable to the genre, it is a slight departure for the band and a walk into newer areas. However, the problem is that like all of their studio albums; it’s merely decent and solid rather than the awesome death metal that they hinted at on The Waken Carnage .

Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com

Review originally posted at http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

Arguably, The Fathomless Mastery is one of the most anticipated death metal records of year, partly due to the return of Mikael Åkerfeldt to vocal duties (which cancels out the loss of Dan Swano), and partly due to the fact that the bands two full length’s (2002s Resurrection Through Carnage and superb but slight step back and less homage-ish of 2004s Nightmares Made Flesh), were pretty much perfect death metal records. Well, add number three to that list of perfection, as The Fathomless Mastery, indeed in part to the return of Åkerfeldt, improves over the Peter Tägtgren led Nightmares Made Flesh and feels much more like the debut in pace, structure and presence.

Armed with the expected modernized Stockholm buzz and rumble as well as Åkerfeldt’s absolutely perfect growl, The Fathomless Mastery starts with the urgent and classically structured “At the Behest of Their Death” highlighting the bands perfect mix of classic, malevolent moodiness of (early) Entombed/Grave and Dismember inspired death metal flocked with just enough Floridian technicality and time changes to make it more than a pure homage. From there, tracks like “Process of Disillumination”, churning standout “Mock the Cross”, slicing “Treasonous”, chunky “Devour the Feeble”, classic mid song throes of “Earthrot” and other standout “Hades Rising” (the section at 3:00 is to die for) and perfectly atmospheric closing of “Wretched Human Mirror” deliver timeless structures and riffage and Åkerfeldt’s seems to be on a post Watershed catharsis unleashing some truly demonic vocals. His supergrpoup cohorts and primary song writers, Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström (Katatonia, Diabolical Masquerade, Bewitched), Swano replacement Per “Sodomizer” Eriksson (21 Lucifers), Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) Martin “Axe” Axenrot (Witchery) all perform with a passion and precision that only veterans of the scene and lovers of the genre could do, managing to make the Stockholm sound come across with a new found intensity and tightness while still culling all the genre’s best traits.

On the very small down side, there is no sure fire, instant classic track a la “Like Fire”, “Cry My Name” or “Eaten”, but each of the 11 tracks are all damn fine in their own right and the album itself a superb display of death metal perfection that isn’t blast beats and breakdowns, just pure, honest riffs and memorable moments-just like it was in the early 90s. It’s Not quite up to par with Resurrection Through Carnage, but improves on Nightmares Made Flesh, and is ultimately a contender for my year end honors. Fathomless mastery indeed.

Bloodbath’s lineup reads like the cast of a wet dream hosted through the subconscious of countless pseudo-intellectual message board warriors. The band through the years has featured no less than four figureheads in their respective bands: Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth; Jonas Renkse of Katatonia; Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy and Dan Swanö of, well, every Swedish metal band ever. Despite being so heavily involved in such big-time acts, the band has managed to maintain a reasonable output. ‘The Fathomless Mastery’ is their third album, and the full length return of Åkerfeldt into the fold, with Peter Tägtgren having done vocals for their 2004 release ‘Nightmares Made Flesh’. Also featured are Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström and Martin Axenrot, of Katatonia and Opeth respectively, as well as new guitarist Per "Sodomizer" Eriksson.

The ethos behind this ‘supergroup’ is to lay down some fun, hard-hitting, old school death metal. Understandable, considering the level of stylistic wandering going on in the member’s main bands, but where Bloodbath has previously excelled, ‘The Fathomless Mastery’ falls short. An immediate concern is the production, which is very reserved and does very little to stop the songs from fading deep into a mid-deprived murkiness. The smoothed corners of the guitars remove that chunky edge that was vital to Bloodbath’s grooves, and in the end a death metal mix that doesn’t instinctively punch you in the face needs something phenomenal musically to stand out. Unfortunately, Bloodbath can’t manage that this time. Even Martin Axenrot, whose fantastic drumming is now widely distributed through Opeth, doesn’t seem to do much that is particularly interesting. For a band that is meant to be focused on the old school sound, there is a disconcerting amount of tedious blasting going on. A few tracks do stand out as top drawer, but for some reason they are accompanied by some disposable banality rather than the truly sick tracks from the ‘Unblessing The Purity’ EP they released earlier in the year, which, if included, could have made ‘The Fathomless Mastery’ infinitely better than it actually is.

A main attraction to Bloodbath is the presence of Mikael Åkerfeldt on vocals, something which especially interests me as Opeth’s latest album, ‘Watershed’, had a very disappointing lack of his death metal vocals. Bloodbath will have none of that feminine melodic nonsense, and is instead packed full of Mikael’s delicious low growls, with which I have no complaints. The lyrics, like the music, are written by different members of the band, with the majority being shared between Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse, with Åkerfelt writing the lyrics to Per Eriksson’s music. The lyrics are, interestingly enough, not half as graphic as Bloodbath’s prior output. Sure, most of the songs are still about hacking people up whilst sipping on a bone marrow smoothie, but at least this time around they are slightly more discreet about it. We still get song titles such as ‘Devouring The Feeble’ and ‘Slaughter The Will To Live’, but the lyrics themselves seem to be more based on the obvious moral and philosophical consequences of a massacre than the possibility of getting entrails on your shirt.

I want this album to be great, I really do. All of their previous work has been great fun, but ‘The Fathomless Mastery’ feels like a chore to get through. There are some tracks that match Bloodbath standard (‘Mock The Cross’, ‘Iesous’), but unfortunately there aren’t enough of them to make a whole album of great tunes. It’s difficult not to feel the absence of Dan Swanö on this album, and even a guest from another Swedish metal luminary, Christian Ãlvestam, can’t help this album live up to expectations. This isn’t the debut of a new ‘supergroup’, this is their third album and unfortunately it just doesn’t live up to expectations, or the considerable message board hype.

The new Bloodbath album is indeed a decent slab of death metal. It is catchy and fairly solid, even though not impressive at all. There are no amazing, mindblowing riffs to be found here, but overall the songwriting is competent and the songs are generally pretty decent.

“Mock the Cross” probably is the only song here that can be labeled as a true stand-out: the vocal performance of Akerfeldt really shines here along with the powerful, driving main riff and the little, tasteful solos (this tune probably has the best guitar work of the whole record too!). Axenrot's drumming is stellar, not only on this track but also on the whole record. He can easily play anything he wants to, from furious blast-beats to thrashy patterns. Obviously, there is no room here for the soft, rock-ish beats he constantly used on Opeth's latest offering, Watershed, but, while not being that varied, his performance fits the music and the mood of the songs well. Another strong thing about the album is the presence of very well-writtten choruses, all of them quite hooky and catchy: you'll easily remember every chorus present on The Fathomless Mastery. Akerfeldt's vocals are just awesome: furious, aggressive, masculine and hm, PERCEPTIBLE. Well, it's a strange thing to label his harsh performance as perceptible, but, somehow, if you are a fluent in english, you'll understand almost everything he says, which is remarkable! You can't say the same thing about other growlers out there (Lord... Worm...), right?

Unfortunately, the record is too repetitive, and that's its main flaw and the reason why I don't rate this much higher. The songs are too damn similar and, as a result, this record can't be labeled as a varied one at all. As variety is one of the most important things about an album in my opinion, I'll have to reduce the score greatly. A pity indeed, because this piece had potential. Moving on to the songs, two other highlights are “Treasonous” and “Iesous”, both featuring nice, sing-along choruses and vocal lines. Another problem I have with the tunes is that they lack guitar solos and memorable riffs. As I've already said, the guitar work could have been a lot better. “At the Behest of their Death” is also quite cool though, setting the tone for the rest of The Fathomless Mastery. The other tracks range generally from generic to decent and there are no other clear stand-outs.

So, concluding, an OK album, but definitely not a contender for album of the year. Still, a good listen for those who enjoy death metal.

I was eager to see what was to come from Bloodbath after the excellent ep "Unblessing The Purity", such a huge work that surpassed the quality of all the past releases of the Swedish band, and the expectations have not gone lost: "The Fathomless Mastery" – which does not feature any of the ep tracks – results being the best full length they've written so far.

The album continuous along the same tracked path by the past disks, the passage from a basilar simple death to a more technical and more various form of music which never transcends the boundaries of extreme metal anyway. We even find some Meshuggah-like groovy passages ("Slaughtering The Will To Live"), and even if the base remains rooted into the sound of Edge Of Sanity and Dismember, with some American edge ("Moch The Cross" has got a rather Morbid Angel-like start) their sound is very rich and not primal.

"The Fathomless Mastery" doesn't reach the same perfection of "Unblessing The Purity", also because it's hard to maintain the same high level for eleven songs in a row, though we must recognize they have been able to write such a nice album without introducing anything experimental or modern. Bloodbath are the toy of some heroes of death metal whose careers (with Katatonia and Opeth) have taken them away from the roots. But they must be very tied to such roots, otherwise we could not explain all the time they're paying to Bloodbath, three releases in 2008! – maybe effect of the passage to Peaceville?

Little closing maliciousness: without denying any of his former artistic merits, I am persuaded that their growth is due to the leaving of Dan Swano from the slot of drummer and guitarist.

Originally written for Silent Scream http://www.silentscreamzine.com/Home.asp?Lang=ENG

After the marvelous "Unblessing The Purity" EP this highly expected full length finally arrived. First off I must say that Bloodbath switched focus of their worship, from the Swedish HM-2 sound to an almost exaggerated Morbid Angel influence. "Mock The Cross" is the most obvious example. It's basically a carbon copy of "Where The Slime Lives". I know more bands have done this (Blood Red Throne - "Human Fraud" comes to mind) but I always felt this band did their own take on old albums rather than just making "Domination" a second time with better production values.

This album has much more twisted songwriting that's randomly hit and miss for the most part. The abrupt breakdowns and unstructured songwriting makes the songs feel rushed, which very well might be the case. There are even hints of Meshuggah as well as other modern groovy bands. Not what one expected from the "Death Metal elite" huh? "Slaughtering The Will To Live" for instance has a section at about one minute that reminds me more of Pantera than Dismember or Morbid Angel. Is this is a good thing? Of course not. Katatonia and Opeth fans broadly unfamiliar with Death Metal may swallow this for the band members alone, but I'm actually here for the music, not to be a worshipping fanboy.

Aside from the more traditional songs that are all written by Blakkheim ("At The Behest of Their Death", "Treasonous" and "Hades Rising") there's not really anything on this disc up to Bloodbath standards. Even "Treasonous" and "Hades Rising" would be considered absolute filled on another Bloodbath album. "Devouring The Feeble", for instance, mixes a few actual Death Metal sections with what mostly sounds like groovy Opeth reject riffs. This reminds me of Metallica's "Death Magnetic" more than anything else. Let's put all we got in a mixer and see what comes out? Well, guess what? It's a mess. How surprising.

Vocally mr. Åkerfeldt is kind of trying out a new style here. Rather than his strong, deep approach he's doing a lot of fast, quirky growling. His voice sounds good but accompanied with the already "challenged" songwriting it adds another hit and miss factor. I'm not gonna bash the band for experimenting here but most of the stuff would've probably sounded better with the deep vocal approach. Åkerfeldt strength is his fat tone and depth, and on this album he's dumped quality in favor for imitating David Vincent. The only comment I've got left I guess is that the drumming once again is great. Axe has proved himself a beast on his previous Bloodbath appearances and doesn't disappoint here. Tight, aggressive, dynamic and damn fast as usual.

My conclusion is that "The Fathomless Mastery" doesn't get there at all. It's a decent album at best, which makes it a really bad album compared to the rest of Bloodbath's discography. Maybe it's time to rethink direction, making a more modern aggressive band instead of getting stuck in a Death Metal direction that might not be natural. At least that's what the result suggests. While some of the individual parts are rather good, this album as a whole sounds horribly rushed, disorganized and fragmented.