Ursinne – Swim With The Leviathan – Album Review

Source // Ursinne

Two of the busiest gents in Death Metal have joined forces to unleash merry hell in the name of old-school, Swedish death metal carnage….and Swim With The Leviathan has turned out to be a right royal face-ripper of an album!

Dave Ingram (ex-Bolt Thrower, Ex-Benediction, ex-Hail Of Bullets, Down Among The Dead Men, Echelon) & Jonny Pettersson (Henry Kane, Wombbath, Just Before Dawn amongst others) have converged to show us all how this shit should be done and Swim With The Leviathan is an album that lives and dies by its intensity, coming at you like a dozen enraged Leatherface’s with chainsaw’s raised, buzzing inches from your face.

The saw is definitely the fuckin’ law here as Pettersson’s riffs cut a swathe through your cranium with relentless efficiency and that classic Swedish death sound. From the feedback drenched intro to the ferocious “Devil May Care”, to the blistering speed of “Talons”, Ursinne deliver death metal goodies like their lives depend on it and the result is a shoe-in on many a death-head’s best of the year list.

Special note must also go to the abundance of cover versions included here, a situation that usually prompts much derision from this writer. However, Ursinne’s choice of covers are surprising and most of all, they’re fuckin’ good fun. Can “Turning Japanese” cut the mustard as a death metal song? In the hands of Ursinne it sure can! It’s also no real secret that Dave Ingram is a fan of Queens of the Stone Age so to encounter Ursinne’s version of “Monsters In Your Parasol” comes only as a semi-surprise. And again, it works….Josh Homme’s stoner masterclass reworked for the death metal generation. Incidentally, lyrics such as “the walls are closing in again” also help the cause; sinister tones and symbolism meshing well with the reworked death metal carnage that surrounds them.

This is a true Britsh meets Scandinavian success with Dave Ingram’s all too recognisable growls and roars elevating what could be considered a mere knock-off of Entombed/Dismember classics. Fortunately, that’s not the case, as Ursinne have delivered a violent, endlessly entertaining old-school death metal record that’s mandatory for those who still worship at the altars of those pioneering Swedish bands from the early 90’s!

Ursinne translates from Swedish into English as anger; rage; wrath; fury….and that;s exactly what Swim With The Leviathan delivers….along with some cracking, unexpected cover versions of course! 8/10

To pre-order Swim With The Leviathan, pop over to Ursinne’s bandcamp page:

Bandcamp:
https://ursinne.bandcamp.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/UrsinneBand/

Transcending Obscurity Records:
http://tometal.com/
https://www.facebook.com/transcendingobscurityrecords/