The Top 21 Albums of the 21st Century…so far #5

#5 Bloodbath – Nightmares Made Flesh

 

No one brings back that old school death metal feeling quite like Bloodbath.  Sweden’s “super-group” has been making killer death metal since 1999 and with their most recent release, The Fathomless Mastery, they continue what they started with earlier releases like Resurrection Through Carnage and the classic from 2004, Nightmares Made Flesh.  NMF is a classic in my opinion.  For such a recent release I feel it is timeless and I’m sure ill be spinning it for many more years.  This is also the only Bloodbath album to feature Swedish metal god Peter Tagtren on voKILLS.

There are few albums on this list that I can’t pick out just 2 or 3 songs to rave about.  Every song on this album is amazing and they all deserve their own essay but I don’t have the time or the patience for that.  So I guess I’ll just talk about the one song on this album that will probably make the “top 100 greatest death metal songs ever” list for the next 100 years.  I am, of course talking about “Eaten”.  When that bass drops I instantly want to start hitting things and this thing starts happening with my neck where I can’t control it.  It is a true head bangers song and holds some of the most vile lyrics I’ve ever heard.  Keep in mind when I say vile I don’t mean like Torso Fuck’s legendary “Raped by Elephants”.  When I say vile I mean deeply disturbing and truly fucked up.  Allow me to give an example from the song “Eaten”, which is about someone who fantasizes about being eaten by a cannibal:

 

Carve me up, slice me apart
Suck my guts and lick my heart
Chop me up, I like to be hurt
Drink my marrow and blood for dessert…

 

I finally found you, my personal slaughter
As an appetizer,I let you taste my daughter

 

Aside from the brutal lyrics there are two big standouts on Nightmares and those are the riffs and the vocals.  I’ve always been a huge fan of Tagtren’s vocals and he doesn’t disappoint on this album.  And the riffs…oh my, the riffs.  Bloodbath possess what I would call an evil groove, which is something that is hard to find and these guys have perfected it.  

 Bloodbath are easily the forerunners of death metal revival and that’s no nightmare.