ALBUM REVIEW: Meditations In Filth – Child
Alex Stjernfeldt is one of those frustratingly talented people who just seems to be good at everything he does. Whether it’s the breathtaking instrumental post-metal of NOVARUPTA, or the glorious Swedish death metal throwback he and his friends provide with GRAND CADAVER, every project he puts his name to bears a mark of distinct quality, and CHILD is no exception. Conceived by Stjernfeldt and his friend Albin Sköld way back in 2015, the duo have taken their time to recruit three other musicians from the Gothenburg and Stockholm scenes (vocalist Joakim Lindström, guitarist Per Stålberg and bassist Staffan Persson) for the band to now present their wonderfully-titled deathgrind debut Meditations In Filth.
A quick glance down the track list shows that CHILD have had no trouble understanding the assignment here; its 17 tracks span just a touch over 20 minutes, and they have titles like Hate Well Spent and Burn As One which promise all manner of fury. Four of those offerings are just ten seconds in length – each essentially a short little noise interlude providing all the respite this record has to offer. Because other than that, Meditations In Filth is absolutely relentless. A hurricane of blast beats, D-beats, chunky riffs and rabid vocals from Lindström, all of these things may have been expected, but the urgency and intensity with which they are delivered means they never feel even the slightest bit tired.
The production does the album plenty of favours too. Mixed by Stålberg, and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén, it may seem a little redundant to say that Meditations In Filth sounds decidedly Swedish. A lot of that is obviously down to the guitars – that classic, everything in the red, HM-2 sound that comes with a contractual obligation to mention the likes of ENTOMBED and DISMEMBER every time you hear it. But even beyond that there is just something so raw and bracing about this record that the Swedes have always done well. Lindström’s vocals sit low in the mix, but not too low; Sköld’s cymbals bleed a little at the edges, but never to the point of overwhelming the rest of the band; it all just feels like the work of a tight and powerful unit – live and unadulterated, as indeed it should be.
Perhaps the only challenge that comes with a record like this – provided you’re already a fan of the genre that is – is that it can be a bit of a case of blink and you’ll miss it. Distinguishing between individual tracks isn’t easy at all, and to an extent probably unnecessary. Maybe some of the slightly longer later cuts like the double-kick pummelling of Abattoir Of Minds, the heavier grooves of Sweating Gold, or the penultimate track She Came From The Marsh (which is notable for the rasp of Stjernfeldt’s GRAND CADAVER collaborator and DARK TRANQUILITY frontman Mikael Stanne) get a bit of a chance to stand out if only because they actually clear the two-minute mark, but most of all the feeling here is one of CHILD grabbing you by the hair and whirling your over their heads Miss Trunchbull style until they finally decide to let you go.
So if that’s what you’re looking for, make this one a high priority this week. Meditations In Filth is a great deathgrind record made by a group of musicians with a strong command of all the essentials and a clear love for the genre. They don’t do much to push the envelope, but as you would expect from Stjernfeldt in particular the execution alone makes this likely to be one of the better releases in the genre in question for the rest of the year to come.
Rating: 8/10
Meditations In Filth is set for release on February 16th via EAT Heavy Records.
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