Soils of Fate - Swedish Slammers

Playing with the groove of twenty Devourments, the vocals of a rapping Matti Way-circa Cranial Impalement, and the almost exact style of music as Japan's Vomit Remnants, SOF are Sweden's answer to everyone else's slamming goodness. But just what makes them so good? Listen in...

1. The groove. This band would be nothing without a solid rhythm section, but listen to the varied and catchy drumming of both Nicklas Karlson and Jocke, who drummed on older releases (the band has since integrated drummer-for-every-band-ever, most notably Dying Fetus, Kevin Talley on the skins; how's that for star power?). The older drummers switch fluently from blasts to slower rolls and great kick patterns, as well as quirkier fills given the song.

2. The vocalizations. This guy is sicker than anything Disgorge has done since She Lay Gutted, so to compare him to anyone lesser than Matti himself would be a total insult. This guy spews out some of the most sickening gutturals in the genre. It even sounds almost funny when he "raps" (I usually categorize the music as what old-school hip-hop would sound like if it were metal instead), but he delivers all lyrics(?) with conviction.

3. The aesthetic. OK, so this isn't a part of their actual sound, but this lets these Swedes stand out. True crime slam death? I've died and gone to fuckin' heaven! Song titles like "Murder, Inc." and ".44" definitely give off that air of organized mob-crime very well, and the music sounds tailor made for people in the mob, inflecting the vocals and guitars with the brutality you need to be a cold, calculating killer and villain.

This band gets a solid A from me. They never fucked up their legacy (fingers crossed!), every song they made ruled, and they could probably do more stuff like this in the future, only possibly better...they ARE really consistent (both albums have the same general style, but you can definitely tell songs apart; there's a good deal of personality inherent, lacking in a lot of slam bands and in most of the BDM scene as a whole). Cheers to SOF.

Check Soils Of Fate out at their Myspace.