Ribspreader are just another band lost in the endless current of Swedish death metal bands that are getting increasingly popular and also increasingly agitating. These guys have been around for roughly ten years now, and so far nothing that they've offered was brought a sort of liveliness or contrast to the already expanding scene of Entombed/Dismember worshipers, and their most recent album ''The Van Murders'' was no exception, a rigid piece of mortal flesh that was lost in the vortex of Swedish bands, outshined by the likes of Tribulation or Torment, bands which have projected the classic Swedeath sound exceptionally, by adding their own aroma to the music. ''The Kult Of Pneumatic Killrod'' is just another face in the crowd, another slab of monolithic death/thrash chugging and hardcore tinged chainsaw chord barrages. Rogga Johansson is a man who has been up to a number of old school Swedish death metal bands, and despite this being relatively derivative, I can't help but wonder if Johansson actually slightly got bored and experimented a little, and toyed with the music, just for the sake of fun.
The sources are blatantly obvious. Entombed, Dismember, Carnage, God Macabre and alike, though perhaps due to the change of technology over the years, this monster weights a few kilos heavier than classics like ''Left Hand Path'', ''Like An Everflowing Stream'' or ''The Winterlong''. What I found really boring and uninteresting about the album is that it tends to contain numerous passages that I find completely irrelevant, passages where dual guitars all of a sudden break loose of the frantic battle that was happening a second before and slowly harmonize, change the mood of the album in an instant, thus reducing the quality of the album. Sure, I have a fair amount of respect to raging mammoths like ''Flash Psycho'', but even during its short lifespan, the song transforms into sludgy, melodic turtle. And I found ''The Hegemony Of The Hammer'' to be a completely unnecessary element, its rigid personality mangled with black metal chord sequences and doomy melodies lingering about. This melodic attribute that seems so dominant over the music could be only transmitted from one source: D-i-s-s-e-c-t-i-o-n. It turns out that these guys have experimented a little here, and they've experimented in the wrong way, resulting in a most impotent incursion of simplistic riffs.
Had Ribspreader inserted differing styles and sounds in a more elaborate way, with more focus, precaution an care, then perhaps I could have enjoyed this slab of futile death metal. Even so, Ribspreader still offers some decent death/thrashing Swedeath from time to time, and being extremely accessible is another advantage that the riffs always hide under their cloaks, and the traditional Swedish groove-like sensation is never far apart from the monolithic riffs, battering the listeners neck relentlessly. ''Into The Filt'' can be a prime example of the band's choppy rhythms with a very small amount of that Dissection-esque black metal melody injected into the riffs. The good news is that the music is still fun because it's nothing that can be taken too seriously, and the shortness of the songs increase efficiency, thus enabling the construction of able-bodied, robust tracks that still pretty catchy. No doubt, this album had its flaws, yet its strength is undeniable an it's still a pleasuring listen for those who don't mind it when their meal is too cold, or poor in variety, but just gobble their food for the sake of saturated stomach.
Highlights:
Enter The Megaflesh
Flesh Psycho
Nocturnal Manslaughter
Rating: 73%
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