Dreadful Pleasures

“This album is dedicated to the spirit of REAL death metal and horror the way it was always meant to be”

Revolting is a Swedish death metal band and one of the many projects from the prolific musician Rogga Johansson. No kidding, just go to Rogga’s profile in the metal archives and you will find out what I mean. Dreadful Pleasures is the day view full length released back in 2009 and I have to say that this album surprised me big time.

Being one of the countless Rogga’s projects, my expectations were not very high at the beginning but to my surprise; this record kicks serious ass. The music is a homage to all things death metal and every track is loaded with nods to different variants of the subgenre. For instance, you can find traditional Swedish death metal in the vein of Dismember and Entombed with the buzzsaw guitar tone (Tenafly Viper, Overtaken by the Crawling, Terror has no Shape, and Moonshine Mutation). You can also find songs that lean towards a groovier side of death metal (They’re not human) and some other tracks that incorporate slow tempo chugs and quasi-death-doom passages (Dreadful Pleasures). Thus, it can be said that Revolting’s debut blends a variety of death metal styles in a brutal, honest, and fun way.

The execution is simple, effective, and at the same time, the energy transmitted by the band makes you bang your head constantly. Regardless of the predictable song structure, the album is so dynamic that at the end it just flies and when you realize it’s the last song. So, this record permits multiple spins without getting tired or bored. The music is honest with no bullshit or compromises. I believe that’s the reason why Revolting has released solid albums consistently since their day-view.

All in all, I had a blast listening to Dreadful Pleasures; pure death metal fun with no compromise. This is not just another Rogga side-project in the Rogga verse, I think it is one of the more if not the most consistent (apart from Paganizer) Johansson project. The music is fast, aggressive, and checks all the boxes for a good quality death metal band.

Some time ago I had the chance of checking out Revolting’s latest opus ‘At The Word’s End’, which was a truly solid opus of classic death metal. This Swedish band is strongly influenced by its land’s classic death metal scene and its not a great surprise that its debut ‘Dreadful Pleasures’ is a sincere devoted work to this scene. Revolting was born in Gamleby, Sweden, in 2008. Since its inception the band has had a quite solid career releasing a total of six albums, all of them with a recognizable classic style.

But let´s go back to its debut work ‘Dreadful Pleasures’, which was released only one year after the band’s creation. This shows how clear the band’s ideas were at that time and that their intention of following the main patterns of the Swedish death metal scene had very solid foundations. First of all, the production is just perfect. It is clear that this album has been produced in the 21st century, so it has a clean, well-balanced and powerful sound. The vocals, guitars and drums are perfectly audible and distinguishable. The balance between them is unquestionable and well-achieved. This is by no mean a low-quality production and thankfully, ‘Dreadful pleasures’ is a perfect work in this sense. Musically, Revolting plays death metal in its purest essence. Far from sometimes excessive complexity of modern bands, what Revolting plays is just honest extreme metal. The vocals are the expected growls, solidly played by Roger Johansson, whose performance is excellent through the entire record. The guitar riffing is simply brutal, with a combination of super heavy riffs which in certain moments become more melodic, this adds an interesting point of variety to the compositions. In any case, the riffs are demolishing and crushing regardless of being more or less melodic and create a sonic wall, that exemplifies what death metal is. The drumming here escapes for crazy speediness and it focus more on adjusting its pace to what the compositions require, with a healthy mixture of a lively pace, wisely mixed with slower parts. When Revolting slows down the pace the compositions sound like a mastodon smashing the surface, it is as heavy as you can image. A clear example of it is the tremendous homonymous song that closes the album. This mixture can be found in the whole album though some songs tend to be faster and other ones slower, but in general all the compositions contain this formula, and they exploit it rightfully. It is difficult to highlight songs as all have a very good level, but the already mentioned song, alongside the furious album opener ‘Tenafly Viper’ and the following ‘Terror Has No Shape’ are among my favourite ones. ‘Tenafly Viper’ shows the mentioned melodic touch that Revolting’s riffs have, this is an interesting aspect, as it is one of the most straightforward compositions. ‘Terror Has No Shape’ show us that you don´t need to create a very long song to have a varied one. This track summarizes all the strong points of Revolting, a brutal riffing which doesn´t lack a very enjoyable melodic side, and mid-fast sections combined with slower one. All in less than three minutes, not bad!

All in all, Revolting’s debut is what I had expected, classic Swedish death metal as its finest. Solid compositions excellently produced and executed. This thirty minutes of pleasant brutally will make happy any fan of good extreme metal.

Every once in a while I like to listen to some good death metal. Despite not being my favourite genre, I absolutely have my favourite albums, and that curiosity for listening to some good death metal brought me to this release. I'm very glad for having had the opportunity to listen to it as it had already been kind of a long time since the last time I didn't listen to something with this sound and style and let me explain myself.

Here, in Mexico, when we say a band is very "pig", we mean that a band has a pretty thick, heavy and kind of dirty sound, kind of what is listened to in goregrind and grindcore bands (like the first two Carcass releases), and this is the word that comes to my mind when I listen to this album. Its putrid, marshy and filthy sound and style is actually pretty catchy, kind of addictive and can be a delight for those who seek a dirty sound like this. The album has no mayor pretentious but to sound like this and sound as dirty as possible; in that sense, is an honest release that knows what it is, and it is a pleasure to be able to listen to something with that honesty.

Of course, the album is pretty basic and, for that, it doesn't stand out very much. The low-tuned tremolo-picking-based riffs, repetitive (but catchy) rhythms and the monotony of the songs are made for the kind of public that listen to and enjoy that, rather than for those who seek a complex and elaborated musical proposal. Yes, it is fun to listen to, but no more than that. You can even put it as background music while being with friends, or even when you are doing your household chores, but don't seek a great proposal or something that you can enjoy with patience, seeking a very profound work of art.

I have no more to say and I don't want to sound repetitive. Listen to it if you just want some good, "pig" death metal, but just that. Don't expect a marvellous oeuvre, cause you'll end up frustrated, disappointed and I'm going to pick on you for expecting such a thing like that from an album with such a bizarre (and ridiculous) cover art like that of this album.

From all the bands and projects Rogga Johansson has ever started or participated in Revolting might probably be my favorite one (although some nay-sayers might tell you that he has anyway written just one tune a thousand times, but just ignore those). Some of the newer albums like “Monolith of Madness” are absolutely class, but it is great to see the debut “Dreadful Pleasures” having got a re-release. Death metal has flourished over the years and we have seen the creation of various sub-genres. But regardless of what new and various sonic directions it runs headlong into, at its core it remains a genre obsessed with brutality and simplicity, and Revolting have no intention to change this fact

All the trademark elements for that kind of music are in place: pummeling drum patterns, buzz-sawing guitar parts and beastly vocals are all present. Rogga never sacrifices tightness and controlled playing and has always been able to unleash the highest possible level of animalistic rage and fury while keeping things straight. The sound is raw and quite typical for SweDeath, putting enough dirt into the music to convince each fan of that kind of stuff. The riffing is straight-forward for most parts, departing from the main path only in exceptional cases. The trademark chords have a very traditional character and are pitched against some short but perfectly implemented lead harmonies.

Rogga and his crew boast a lot of groovy bounces that are easy to catch onto. There are enough hints of melody within the crushing backbone, but they never get too much to the front. There are of course a lot of nods to some of the cornerstone albums of the genre. However, given that we are speaking about one of the main protagonists of the newer school of Swedish death metal I think this is fair enough. The rhythm section is tight as hell, with some perfectly timed outbursts of onslaught. With all eyes on Rogga the excellent delivery by Grotesque Tobias and Mutated Martin could easily be overlooked. The man himself is roaring and belting out the lyrics with a lot of power, underlining the no-nonsense approach of this band.

In the end the level of enjoyment one might get out of this album is directly proportional to the personal enthusiasm for SweDeath. Although the band tries to add their own DNA there is not much left to be said in this genre. However, “Dreadful Pleasures” is one of the most entertaining examples of this style of music so in case you are looking for another dose of hefty HM2 treatment done right look no further and check this album out. Re-released as digipak by Careless Records it is also worth noting that the cover artwork is fantastic and very old-school, making this an album that should be owned in physical format.

Horror metal messenger, Rogga Johansson never seems to stop does he? Out of every musician in the death metal genre, little come to be as prolific as Rogga, pumping out death metal albums like Stephen King pumps out books. I’ve been aware of Rogga’s projects for some time, but it took a 2020 reissue to finally get my hands on one. That one being Revolting’s ‘Dreadful Pleasures’ originally released about 11 years ago. As far as I can tell, Revolting’s all about horror with the cover akin to a cheesy 80s b-movie and lyrics filled with tales of monsters and killers to match. Not to mention a classic and chunky Swedish death metal style that we all know and love.

‘Dreadful Pleasures’ is an album that’s hard to pin down with sufficient detail. At its most base level, it’s an above average, even great example of death metal. It’s got personality in the form of Rogga’s snarling vocals and monstrous riffing, Martin’s brutal drumming and Tobias’ thrumming bass. The issue is that it shoots itself if the foot with the songs and how consistent the album is with itself. No one song is too different from one another: no mutant or monster more freakishly deformed than the others. The LP also blows its load too early with its first and best track ‘Tenafly Viper’. The song rips, roars, tears and shreds with catchy riffs, infections drum lines, and a memorable chorus. Then as soon as it’s over, every other track just sort of happens without the brains of the first song behind them. The album blasts through riffs but it only seems to feature truly amazing ones by chance. Odds are however, if you like one song off this album and are into Swedish death metal, you’ll most assuredly like others as well. Truth be told, tracks like ‘Overtaken by the Crawling’ and ‘Moonshine Mutation’ are too fun, ravenous and insane to pass up. I’m also a sucker for the stories weaved throughout the album. I mean, who doesn’t like skeevy 80s horror movie monsters, stalkers and killers thrown into their death metal?

Of course, the Swedish don’t only have great riffs to accompany their breed of death metal, they also have the sound nailed as well. ‘Dreadful Pleasures’ production is what elevates great songs into bangers, dishing out a healthy heaping of crunchy guitar tones, crisp vocals, sizzling bass and of course, poignant drums. Regardless of my opinion on Rogga’s writing skills, this album sounds great and evokes the atmosphere it’s going for without fail. I can picture the music video now, scratchy black and white film, women being chased by beasts and horrific tales all to the sweet tune of pulsing and relentless death metal, courtesy of Revolting. The album’s tone is spot on as well, thanks to Rogga’s vocals intertwined with his guitar, lyrical patterns and so on. Though the songs aren’t all notable, it’s still entertaining to hear how and what Rogga will bleat out. This is a man that doesn’t slack around his death metal and it just by how he plays on this album, you get a sense of the passion he puts into it.

‘Dreadful Pleasures’ is by no means a dreadful album. I love the nature of it, how it bares its yellowed teeth, ready to spill bright red blood with its almighty death metal brutality. But there’s a certain uniformity to the album’s teeth. Instead of gnarled, jagged razors of varying length and edge, they’re all the same (give or take) with three or four moments of flesh-rending terror that stick out. It’s a fine album that plays by its own death metal rules with intermittent dealings of pure horror metal. At least one freakshow here will get your head banging!


Originally written for Antichrist Magazine

Another colorfully retro death metal album cover and another excellent taste of Razorback Records' ear for quality new artists paying their respects to the classic death and gore metal of yore. Revolting performs a Swedish old school style akin to countrymen Paganizer, Ribspreader, and Repugnant, and it's really no surprise: this is yet another band to feature the vocals of old school Swede guru Revolting Rogga Johansson, who is a member of two of the aforementioned bands (as well as Demiurg, Carve, Putrevore and a host of others). Once again, he's done well for himself. This is quite good; there isn't a moment on Dreadful Pleasures during which I wasn't entertained. The songs are crafted simply and effectively in the vein of old At the Gates/Grotesque, Entombed and Dismember.

"Tenayfly Viper" opens with its grinding and bouncing guitars beneath a noodly and messy lead, but like all great Swedish death it has one of those trademark melodies. "Terror Has No Shape" busts out like total Left Hand Path/Clandestine bliss, and again with the melody. Many of the other tracks follow suite. "Overtaken by the Crawling" has some creepy breakdowns and very evil sounding riffs. "Moonshine Mutation" is one of my favorites on the album, with a classy melodic riff, and "Brainwaves of Death" is also really cool.

Lyrically the band focuses on cult horror and sci fi camp, tracks about freaky monsters and mad scientists. This falls in line with a lot of Razorback's thematic acts like Ghoul and Crypticus, and will certainly please connoisseurs. It's also an easy recommendation if you like just about any of Rogga's other current or past bands. The guy is prolific, I have to admit. Granted, the differences are very subtle between this and some of his other retro styled bands, but it's enough.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

After having a ball in 2008 and becoming by far the favorite record label of headbangers all around the world, Razorback have kicked off 2009 right where they left off in 2008. Last year this label single-handedly proved and showed that old school metal is alive and well by putting out release after release each better than the last all of which were in the vein of 80’s death metal by introducing to us bands like Acid Witch, Hooded Menace and Decrepitaph.

This year Razorback has introduced us too another death metal band from Sweden by the name of Revolting. Much like the death metal bands introduced to us by Razorback last year this band like the others play Swedish death metal as it should to complement the Swedish death metal scene for their contributions to metal for Sweden is to death metal what Bay Area is to thrash. Just take a look at the band logo. A melted green grotesque zombie face which is mutilated apart with it’s eyes hanging out of its sockets and hanging by the veins with the band’s name written by the blood which has oozed out from the skull and is in between the face which is now ripped in two parts. Just in case you have not come to know by know they obsessed with the 80’s horror-gore-splatter movies, which must not be a big surprise to those who have heard even a single release by Razorback last year.

The music is a flashback to the early days of Razorback as it is much influenced by early horror\death metal acts like Lord Gore and Frightmare. However much the music the influenced by these acts it manages to retain a tinge of originality because the band is headed by one of the most prolific death metal composers our time has known, Rogga Johansson.

You enter the band’s MySpace and the words that you first see are, “Rotting, Grotesque, and Putrid REAL DEATH METAL!” and that the band sounds like “The Blob devouring your bones and flesh while you puke out your intestines, blood, and green bile”. This, my friend speaks volumes about the band and the music. The band plays death metal the way it should be played. The songs are catchy, intense, headbangable and fast. Expect no keyboards. Expect no clean vocal sections. Expect no mercy, but expect a relentless assault of putrid death right at your face, chopping and hacking away at a stunned you and you cannot look away.

The highlight of this release, which spans 30 minutes and unleashes 9 tracks, is the amazing work on lead guitars. They sound crisp and release unto us a plethora of riffs of all varieties with the word brutal imprinted at the very core of each one. For guitar solo freak, this one isn’t for you because there isn’t a single one.

The vocals are entirely growls and the lyrics are at times decipherable. The bass is audible at times and doesn’t get lost in the mix. The production is such that the record even sounds like it was recorded in the 80’s and yet there remains a certain hue and tinge of modern production throughout, much like was the case with British thrashers “Evile’s” debut album “Enter The Grave”. Another thing that deserves a special mention is the highly pro-efficient drumming. It goes extremely well with the music and doesn’t hog the attention. It’s not something you’d pay attention to but then again “a true hero is one that does good deeds without being noticed”, eh?

There is no point in discussing each track separately as the album sounds best when heard as a whole but a personal favorite for me are the tracks, “They’re Not Human” and "Brainwaves Of Death". What are you waiting for? Go, get it, get devoured and you’ll enjoy it.

Now just in case you’re thinking this is another regular death metal band whose album you’ll grow out of after a couple of listens, I must tell you, handling vocals and guitars here is the very famous Rogga Johansson who has been an integral part or driving force behind a lot of bands you might have there in your collection, like Edge of Sanity, Paganizer, Deranged, Ribspreader, Demiurg etc. If these names ring a bell, you’re probably already checking your wallet. If they don’t, continue reading.

This is perfectly executed death metal in its purest and truest form right here ladies and gentlemen. Not an ounce of “-core” crap to be found here. While there are still a handful of bands which might be able to offer you some kick-ass death metal, they usually lose marks when it comes to originality. Here you can find just about enough touches of inspiration to keep things real and therefore interesting. There are no randomly shat out blast beats, alterations are made between tempos wherever required. The songs are full of great riffs that go from jackhammer intensity to slowed down atmospheric guitar, overshadowing the slight though noticeable monotony.

The production is polished enough to make all instruments audible, yet raw enough to get you to bang your head. All instruments are perfectly mixed and not once will you feel that the vocals or drums could have been lighter.

Unfortunately there is no vibrant use of lead guitars/solos, but trust me, you won’t miss them either. And after all, solos are not something which will be your first requirement while listening to a death metal record.

The group seems to have enough potential and experience in the field. They are very much capable of writing good memorable and enjoyable music within the well defined framework of death metal and there really isn’t anything more one can ask for.

In 2008 Razorback Records gave us stunning albums like Hooded Menace’s Fulfil The Curse & Acid Witch’s Witchtanic Hallucinations. They’ve opened 2009 with a solid offering like this; I for one can’t wait to see what else they have under their sleeve.