JesuSatan

JesusSatan represents the last effort, maybe momentarily, for Infestdead band and it came out in 1999. Needless to say what we are talking about. It’s always pure death metal but as you can already notice from the songs’ length, this time Dan privileged more complete tracks with a larger number of structures. This time we have ten songs for always thirty minutes of music, more or less. However, the style is more or less unvaried so prepare for more brutality in Deicide style with satanic themes and desecrating contents.

We begin with “Re-Resurrection” and its chirurgical blast beats. The production has changed from the other albums and this time the guitars are more chainsaw-like than before. The few grooving parts are always welcome among that forest of riffs and furious restarts. The vocals are always low-tuned and fucking brutal, completing this dark and apocalyptic scenario. The drums are clear but always a bit plastic, letting us understand that we are not talking about pure drums but a sort of programming even if they are not excessive.

The intensity is high and the structures seem definitely more complete and mature, following the same style we could find on the Killing Christ EP. “Christinsanity” displays great galloping riffs while the bass is incredibly pulsing behind, with its metallic notes as we go on with lots of thrash metal influences to complete this brutal attack. The blast beats are out-of-the-blue but there are also good stop and go guitar parts to sustain the quite catchy refrain and the guitar solos. “Jesus Satan”, “Undead Screaming Sins” and “Evil” are very good examples for the several tempo changes and the brutal restarts. So often we can remark the sudden blast beats that come after the few mid-paced sections.

The guitar solos have improved too and now they are better in technique with a polished style, even if they always conserve the impulsive soul. We can hear them also in a grooving song like “The Burning of the Son” that is definitely slower to maintain the dark atmosphere. By the refrain we grow in speed and the fast restart is announced by a very good swedish death metal oriented riff. “Sinister” is just another blow and it’s remarkable for the drums variety, passing through the simple up tempo, the blast beats and the vicious fast bass drums style. The tremolo by the guitars here is great to give the right black/death touch.

“Antichristian Song #37” marks the arrival of the speed metal influences on the riffage but the drums are almost always on blast beats. Actually, this song was a surprise for me because it’s completely different from the rest, at least for the riffs. “Black Night” is the infamous Deep Purple cover but here it’s not fast like the one played by Deicide and it conserves the original structure. It’s a good cover to end this good death metal album. There’s nothing new here but when a thing has been done the right way, who needs changes?

So here is one of the 42 million bands Dan Swanö has been in. Does this guy ever run out of ideas? Infestdead, oh sorry Dan Swanö is a guy who basically has too much time on his hands and I am glad because of that because here is one more awesome album I can listen to.

To start off the band is obviously very Anti-Christian. The lyrics are sometimes laughable but they do seem to make sense. The album does have a very similar sound to Deicide, the music and the lyrics. But the main difference is Glenn Benton is retarded and Andreas “Dread” Axelsson seems to have a clue what he is talking about. For example in the first song Re-resurrection;

The millennium drives fear into feeble minds
believing all lies of various kind
is it revelation or apocalypse?
or fireflood invasions from the rivers of styx?
empty eyes, as empty as their heads
believers of the word resurrection = braindead
pray for forgiveness
pray "he will come"
fulfillment of the bullshit. it will be done

In the first read of the lyrics they seem just like an everyday rant against Christianity. The song is obviously about the “worries” that were about when the year 2000 came, you know when everything was going to crash and we were all going to burn and die. Criticism of stupid Christians was obviously right; did we see the apocalypse at the turn of the century? Am I burning in Hell right now because I didn’t pray for a savior to keep me alive during the crash of our world? No I am not, but of course it can also be argued that is the reason we are all alive is because people did pray. But besides the point there is an in depth criticism about Christians in the very first song. Most the songs seem very cliché or corny for Anti-Christian song titles; Evil², Antichristian Song #37, Jesusatan. Basically the lyrics are well written and they make complete sense when thought about, they do look childish but are obviously written with a purpose.

Now the vocals, the vocals are, well, awesome! For the most part the vocals are monotone. Axelsson knows what is doing and has performed with Swanö before, in the band Edge of Sanity, which by the way is a really good band too. Sometimes there are vocals that you hear and they make you so horny you want to go rape babies, well yea that is what Axelsson does to me here. His voice is nothing special but knows how to do death metal. I guess comparisons can be made to Corpsegrinder and Glenn Benton.

Swanö is one talented bastard on the guitar. The guitar playing isn’t that fast on the album but is pretty heavy. The groove sound makes this album extremely catchy; I have often found myself yelling JesuSatan at people outside my car while listening to the music. Well I also do that without music for fun but that is a different story. While the sound is similar to Deicide the music is primarily slower and much groovier. Swanö throws in a couple breakdowns here and there, but the thing is they sound completely bad ass, if I had not strapped my head to my seat I may have broken my neck. One song that threw me off was Antichristian Song #37, it sounds pretty much like black metal, then some more speed metal riff sounds, and then they go back to death metal riffage and blast beats

Don’t forget the solos! There are solos disbursed about the album, and guess what, they are awesome. The solo in Re-resurrection is rather short but still sounds good at the same time. There is a solo Antichristian Song #37 that really makes me wiggle like a fish out of water because it is seems emotional while at the same time has no sympathy for the ears listening to it. The solo in Christiansanity comes at the beginning of the song, also one in the middle and one at the end, it kicks off the whole sound of the song, from the lyrics to the breakdowns this song is a real test for any hardcore Christian who opposes Satanism to listen to. Well that is completely opinion but I would assume they would have to go pray to avoid the apocalypse of death metal taking over the world

Sorry no bass solos. I will say I am not an avid listener of the bass in music; I do love when it is played well or doesn’t mess up the music, but who doesn’t? Swanö of course knew what the guitarist wanted the bass to sound like. He did a great job, it is played at a speed up to par of the guitar and you can vaguely hear it in the background unless you have the right speakers. But yea I can never really comment on bass because I don’t know what to look for.

I want a real drummer! Nay, fuck that, who needs a real drummer when you can program a machine to sound like this!? This is probably the most authentic sounding drum machine on an album that I’ve heard next to Devin Townsend’s Ziltoid the Omniscient. Perfectly placed blast beats, standard bass drum, perfectly placed rolls on the snare, programmed great breakdowns, basically sounds like an extremely talented death metal drummer.

Now to the Deep Purple cover of Black Night, like Deicide, Infestdead covered this song, but Infestdead did it first. The cover definitely does the original justice. I think most of us know what the original sounds like, not imagine it with down tuned guitars and great death metal vocals. Yes, it is a great cover.

Overall the album is pretty impressive. I didn’t expect anything less from Swanö though. He accomplished to make a Satanic death metal album that is very brutal and groovy at the same time. If one could find the album it would be a great purchase if you could find it, obviously the re-release should be easier to find. But definitely give the album a good listen if you are into bands that make groovy death metal and are talented at the same time.