ALBUM REVIEW: The Hunt For White Christ – Unleashed

UNLEASHED, which was born from front man Johnny Hedlund’s exit from NIHILIST, which became ENTOMBED, have been veterans of the death metal scene for nearly 30 years, helping to trademark the distinctly Swedish style of death metal. Further, UNLEASHED were one of the key bands in popularising the use of Norse mythology and Viking history in death metal lyrics, alongside the first wave of black metal’s BATHORY and fellow Swedish death metallers AMON AMARTH. 29 years into their career, the band are back with their 13th studio album, The Hunt For White Christ.

The Hunt For White Christ sees UNLEASHED bring the tale of the World Of Odalheim, a story of Hedlund’s creation, to its next chapter continuing the story that was established on 2012’s As Yggdrasil Trembles, and has run through every album since. Here, we see arguably the best translation of prose to lyrics the band has utilised since embarking on this conceptual quest. Hedlund’s vocals throughout The Hunt For White Christ are guttural, though still clear and allow the listener to really dive into the storytelling.

Combining the rough, buzzsaw style of riffing UNLEASHED helped pioneer with a touch of blackened sensibility and undercurrents of melody, the band have created a selection of tracks that simultaneously come in with all the ferocity of a berserker and burrow into your subconscious, become instant hits. This is clearly seen from the get-go, with opening tracks Lead Us Into War, You Will Fall and Stand Your Ground which all employ hooky, crowd pleasing choruses wrapped up in classic, old-school death metal viciousness in the verses. Though using this same style of song for three tracks in a row, and the opening three no less, is a touch formulaic, each is compositionally different enough that it works.

It’s the fourth song, Gram, before UNLEASHED start shaking things up. Gram carries a strong black metal influence for much of the track, with the unrelenting drum work, bare-bones chorus and frostbitten riffing. Towards the end of the song, Gram takes a slightly more atmospheric, sinister turn, allowing Hedlund’s lyrics to cut through with even more ease.

Throughout The Hunt For White Christ, UNLEASHED prove to be experts in bringing their traditional sound to a modern audience. Though the record lacks some of the raw, gritty atmosphere classics such as Where No Life Dwells and Across The Open Sea harnessed perfectly, the slightly-more polished sound works well. An obvious comparison could be made to AMON AMARTH, with the selection of stomping, slightly melodic riffing seen on Stand Your Ground, The City Of Jorsala Shall Fall and Vidaurgelmthul, there’s a lot of influences at play here that are blended together masterfully. Gram brings in plenty of black metal, while Terror Christ has a haunting example of the classic, old-school UNLEASHED sound and By The Western Wall has touches of death-doom.

Whenever a band of such pedigree as UNLEASHED releases an album, its hard not to be excited. As one of the founding fathers of death metal as a whole, and one of the frontrunners in the uniquely Swedish style, a new offering from the Norse quartet is always worthy of your attention. The Hunt For White Christ is no exception. Living up to the expectations set by their brilliant 12th offering, Dawn Of The Nine, UNLEASHED continue to masterfully tell the story of their own fictional world while delivering on all the melody-tinged, buzz-saw riffing we’ve come to expect from them. There is very little to complain about with The Hunt For White Christ, though some fans may harken back to gritter sound of earlier albums. All in, this is certainly one of the better death metal releases of 2018.

Rating: 8/10

The Hunt For White Christ is set for release October 26th via Napalm Records. 

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