Humanity Delete - Never Ending Nightmares

The promise of grinding, corpulent Swedish death metal is still quite the appetite for many seeking only bare-bones aggression and simplistic glance at this nefarious sub-genre of death metal, and those who truly enjoy these redundant aesthetics should look no further then 'Rogga' Johansson's countless projects which have now literally thrown the world in  a state of heavy metal imbalance. Rogga's probably served more fuzzy, bulky Dismember-esque death metal more than any other individual artist over the last decade, yet, shamefully, only few of his projects really had an impact on the metal universe; the long-lasting horror-themed Revolting, Paganizer, the almighty Putrevore and a couple more. Amid procession of riffs, Rogga is still able to find time to come up with yet another act, something that people who are not so fervent about the idea of crushing repetition will only condone.

Humanity Delete, like all of Rogga's previous projects (except Putrevore) merely alters the grinding, thrashy kick of Swedish death metal, and ultimately consists of twelve brief grind/death ghouls that rend their way through the basics. Rogga is handling all the instruments on this record, and if I had to comment of his musicianship I would call him a strong, seasoned and potent musician, with probably the largest riff artillery among his fellow Swedish musicians, but in truth, his style is not providing thousands of headbanging fans with anything entirely refreshing, he's only, as mentioned, rehashing these obscene ruptures and presenting them in different colored ribbons, the content same. ''Never Ending Nightmares'' has a slightly stronger grindcore impulse than Rogga's other abominations: the songs are always abridged into 2-3 minute convulsions, the tone is grand and vile, the drums keep the listener bobbing his head wildly no matter the simplicity, Rogga's vocals are his classic type, harsh, bulbous gutturals imbued with a tinge of darkness, and he'll also throw in a few classy leads here and there to make a little bit of change.

''Never Ending Nightmares'' is not a bad album. But we've been spoiled so exclusively to the tenets of similar groups over the decade that it's only natural that we seek for a good deal of contrast, and a relatively good record in the least from Rogga, especially after his nightmarish assembly of riffs on ''Macabre Kingdom'', and sadly, this doesn't offer that huge measure of differentiation. But even so, if ''Clandestine'', ''Like An Everflowing Stream'' or ''Dark Recollections'' are among your top old school death metal releases and you have a frantic kick for modernized, primal brute force, and if you've already encountered half a dozen of Rogga's albums, then I can't see why this won't add up to your repugnant collection. Solid stuff.

Highlights:
The Eight Fire Narakas
Necromantic Sorcery
Dismal Corridors

Rating: 77%