Bloodbath ‘The Fathomless Mastery’
Album Review by Adam McCann
Peaceville Records/2008/Death Metal
It had been four years since the success of ‘Nightmares Made Flesh’, but when Bloodbath released its follow up ‘The Fathomless Mastery’ in 2008, there had been some changes in the revolving line-up. Back on the vocals was founding vocalist and Opeth mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt who was back in the fold following the departure of Peter Tägtgren, as well as an exit for Dan Swanö who was replaced with the future Katatonia guitarist Per Eriksson. With Åkerfeldt back in the driving seat, the chemistry that was there with Anders Nyström and Jonas Renske returned, together with the superb skills of Martin Axenrot, ‘The Fathomless Mastery’ can easily match and surpass the bands previous outing.
‘The Fathomless Mastery’ immediately sets the bar high with the fantastic ‘At the Behest of Their Death’, the album continues with Bloodbath anthems, the excitingly blasphemous ‘Mock the Cross’ and ‘Drink From the Cup of Heresy’ stand tall alongside the excellent ‘Iesous’ which features Scar Symmetry vocalist Christian Älvestam. Unfortunately, with tracks as outstanding as these, most of the album does not quite reach these dizzy heights. However, with songs this good, it is certainly far from a bad thing, managing to hold your attention and driving the album forward in one of the quickest 43 minutes of your life.
As an album, ‘The Fathomless Mastery’ is enjoyable from start to finish. It is a worthy successor to ‘Nightmares Made Flesh’ and once more shows that when it comes to death metal, this band has all the plaudits and experience to continue making expertly crafted albums.
Rating : 85/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
