Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Date: November 27th, 2020
Ah, Rogga Johansson… The one man mass production assembly line… Now change my mind on this. Rogga’s entire cult status is slowly disintegrating with every next release he puts his hands on. Seriously, does he need so many bands? I mean, they all sound so much alike that it is possible to talk about a trademark Rogga sound. To top it all off, majority of these are basically sub-par, or merely average. On the other hand, most of them have a couple of quite memorable moments which could have been used wisely if he would just place them all in one place. We would probably get fewer releases, but those would be stellar examples of Swedish death metal. The way it is actually being done, we have a ton of records celebrating the legacy, but slowly brushing the glare off the genre. And the man himself, while we’re at it.
“The Shadow at the World’s End” is yet another one Swedish death metal record that offers very much the same thing we are used to. The crispy guitar brutality, melodic leads, versatile headbanging rhythms and Rogga’s fairly recognizable growls. Textbook samples, from the first note to the last. It is obvious that Revolting has the ability to produce decent tracks and arrange them so that they are easily predictable and thus perfect for rioting in front of the stage. Also, there are quite a few memorable parts, meant to get stuck in the listeners mind. At least for a while. But only if you are a newcomer to the Svensk Dodsmetall.
For a long time follower, there is little here that will actually make a deeper impression. “The Shadow at the World’s End” is a nice album to come by, give it a few spins, remember it as a fine one and move on quite easily. Move on to the classic Dismember, Entombed, Grave…
The one thing that is actually going for Revolting’s new album is the length of just over half an hour. The compact size allows us to keep alert for all the finer moments of the record. The album does not drag into infinity. I’m pretty sure that it would become an obnoxious experience if there was but ten or fifteen minutes more.
With all that being said, let us not forget that music is not meant to be mass produced. As you must realize, the urge to hyper produce in the XXI century slowly kills the value of even the most elaborate works of art, including music. Instead of having a couple of grand recordings, we have an enormous pile of average and barely memorable albums. And it keeps getting bigger. “The Shadow at the World’s End” is the living proof of such statement. With all the qualities it definitely possesses it comes as just “another one of those”. Simply stop wasting excellent parts in between “fillers”. Collect the “killers” in one place and deliver a deadly blow already!
