Aggressive Mutilator
”If you´re looking for a big production with a fat and polished sound, this is not for you. This is punkish Black-Metal!”
It´s with these words that the two-piece unit Aggressive Mutilator from Östergötland, Sweden, are presenting themselves at their Bandcamp site, and as good as this sounds; it´s obviously far from being anything like a unique selling point in the world of underground metal.
But it´s a honest one, and hopefully there are things that stands out if you pay attention and look a little bit closer? Or is it not? Let´s find out by listen to two cassettes that appeared here at the headquarters of Hinsides some days ago!
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”War of Extermination”
Self released Demo (2012)
First out is the self released demo tape ”War of Extermination”. The cover image to this treat shows something that looks like a medieval party trick and the angular logotype seems to be made in a computer from the same era so the mood is without any doubt set in the right place before the tape is placed in the old cassette deck and the first song starts to mutilate aggressively…
New old-school on the block!
The whole shebang contains of six songs together with a cover of the über classic ”Sacrifice” by….well, no soup for you if you can´t make a reasonable guess here! Anyway, Aggressive Mutilator makes a decent job to cover one of Batlords most loved evergreens so that´s not too shabby, isn’t it? To compare it to the original is of course out of question, but as a suitable extra spice on this second recording by A.M it does the trick fairly well. What it also does is to put a finger on what´s missing on the tape as a whole; namely intensity and power! (At least if that´s what´s sought for.) The last song ”Evil Child´s Laughter” is another good example of this. It´s not a bad song by any means, but the slow pace makes it a bit boring and it would´ve been proper eerie with a bit more atmosphere put in there.
Otherwise there´s not much to complain about; the sound quality is above average and the mix is also built to fit the expression of these gentlemen. Kim Ekvall Lattik did a good job to record the material and the two comrades seems to have a lot of fun so you can´t really resist the pure devotion that are being let out here. I´d say that this kind of ”retro” Black-Metal has to have this ingredient to reach any heights and this cassette would absolutely get your juices flow if you dig how the classic bands sounded when it all started. It´s not very original but at the same time quite a rare expression these days. A little bit more chaos, speed and dirt added to the story and this would get the front row bangers to go nuts! So, it seems as if the slogan were true; punkish Black-Metal is what you get here, with a suitable production and made with the right spirit!
The fucking nest!
”Det djävlanästet”
Full-length Cd/Mythrone Promotion (2018)
Next up is the more recently released ”Det djävlanästet” and guess what? The production here sounds almost ”fat and polished” haha. (At least compared to the above mentioned demo cassette that had a somewhat ”thinner” production.) A natural progression in combination with the fact that this release are to be considered as a Full length-album, I reckon.
The music itself are still based on the same influences but this recording sounds a bit more evolved in terms of songwriting skills and it do also offer a bit more diversity than what´s been shown before.
It´s still harsh, but not too harsh, it´s fast, but not too fast, and so on. The only thing that there is too much of is the obnoxious refrain of the last song ”Victim 59”. That chorus is really, really annoying to listen to. (But it gets stuck in your head, so that song is probably the one to be chosen as the commercial ”showcase” tune of this band? Or not.) The lack of intensity and power that I pinpointed on the demo are not as much of a problem on this one and I do enjoy the prominent base playing that adds a lot to this recording.
“Det djävlanästet” is a overall a pleasant ride and if you´re into punkish metal made on the musicians own terms you´ll probably like what Aggressive Mutilator brings to you here as well. All their recordings are generously available to listen to at their Bandcamp site, so you know what to do if this is what you crave!?
Thanx a lot to Mikael Holm for sending these two cassettes to Hinsides, and if you too are searching for a review of something written, recorded or crafted any other way; do not hesitate to approach us at; mytmyren@gmail.com
Thanx for reading!
Emil Ahlman/Hinsides Publications