Down Among The Dead Men -…And You Will Obey Me – Album Review

For fucks sake lads, take a fuckin’ breather eh! We jest, of course, but the rate in which Down Among The Dead Men‘s David Ingram and Rogga Johansson are knocking out superior death metal albums is astonishing and with…And You Will Obey Me proving to be yet another class release – from two men who seem all too willing to exhaust themselves in the name of quality death metal – their winning streak looks set to continue!

A brief recap of those recent releases goes something like this:

David Ingram (not forgetting his is the voice behind Bolt Thrower‘s Honour – Valour – Pride and Benediction‘s The Grand Leveller / Transcend The Rubicon / The Dreams You Dread / Grind Bastard): Echelon – The Brimstone Aggrandizement / Ursinne – Swim With The Leviathan + briefly fronting Hail Of Bullets and recently being recruited as the new voice of Just Before Dawn.

Rogga Johansson: Echelon – The Brimstone Aggrandizement / Humanity Delete – Fuck Forever Off / Johansson & Speckmann – Edge Of The Abyss / Megascavenger – As Dystopia Beckons / Minotaur Head – Minotaur Head / Paganizer – Land Of Weeping Souls / Ribspreader – Suicide Gate – A Bridge To Death / Severed Limbs – Collector Of Limbs

That’s just the last 24 months! Try arguing with that little lot!

Anyway, it’s the third Down Among The Dead Men album we now turn our attention to and, as expected, more than a little Napalm Death-esque, gnarly death grind informs much of …And you Will Obey Me‘s 10 tracks of primal power.

You know what to expect, right? Dirty Scandinavian riffs going toe to toe with UK crust punk violence, led by the commanding vocals of Dave Ingram and resulting in no end of top-quality, neck-wrecking tunage.

In fact, DATDM (abbreviation necessary at this stage) are so focused on exterminating, annihilating and destroying all in their path that  you won’t even have time to throw on your crusty old Sacrilege T-Shirt before the damn thing is over. So, spin that fucker again and brace yourselves for the next onslaught!

The fact there’s very little meat on these bones is a positive, with each track proving to be lean, mean and characteristically keen on getting straight to the fucking point! With short, savage shocks of old-school death metal, crust and grind awaiting those who wish to get down with these (very much alive) men of death metal, anyone already enamoured with Rogga Johansson and David Ingram’s more recent output will be as sated as ever!

As for the newcomers, where have you been? You’ve a lot to catch up on! 8/10

Line up –
David Ingram – Vocals (ex-BOLT THROWER, URSINNE, ECHELON, ex-BENEDICTION, ex-HAIL OF BULLETS)
Rogga Johansson – Guitars/Bass (PAGANIZER, EYE OF PURGATORY, NECROGOD)
Kjetil Lynghaug – Session Leads (PAGANIZER, ECHELON, STASS)
Erik R. Bevenrud – Session Drums (STASS)

Down Among The Dead Men‘s …And You Will Obey Me is available for pre-order now.