WOMBBATH: A MUSICAL TEASER FOR “DOWNFALL RISING”

I have many musical weaknesses, but as I’ve confessed more than once, perhaps the most crippling one is old school Swedish death metal. I have something akin to a Pavlovian response when I hear HM-2 distortion in action; the saliva just starts flowing in a disgusting torrent. And so you may imagine how grossly I soiled myself when my friend Tito V. tipped me late yesterday to the fact that Wombbath were about to release a video teaser reel for their new album — Downfall Rising.

I’m not going to assume that everyone knows who Wombbath are, because hell, they haven’t released a new album since 1993 (Internal Caustic Torments) — and probably not many of you have yet heard the split they released with Warhound this past spring. But that 1993 album is a true classic (it was reissued earlier this year — more about that in a minute), and anything that comes out with the Wombbath name attached to it is going to be worth exploring.

We do need to acknowledge that the only current member of the band who dates back to those early days is guitarist Håkan Stuvemark. But he has some fine company with him in the resurrected Wombbath on this new album, including vocalist/bassist Jonny Petterson (Ashcloud, Syn:drom, etc.), guitarist Al Riglin, and drummer Jeramie Kling (Infernaeon, The Absence), with additional guitar parts provided by Taylor Nordberg (Infernaeon). [Note:  Since the album was recorded, Henrik Åberg has joined Wombbath as its drummer.]

And this new teaser video (created by Benny Moberg of Sufficiently Studios) is highly promising. The short clips of songs included in the teaser are a sign that the new album is going to be a dynamic work, with melodic, atmospheric songs and slow crushers as well as a lot of gruesome, unstoppable, Swedish death metal obliteration. Check out the teaser below.

Darkness Rising will be jointly released this coming August by Pulverised Records in the E.U. and by Dark Descent in the U.S. The release dates are b (E.U.) and August 21 (U.S.). The album was mixed by Jeramie Kling (Infernaeon, The Absence) and mastered by James Murphy (Death, Obituary, Testament).

And finally, if you’ve never heard Internal Caustic Torments, I encourage you to check out the special reissue of the album (remastered by Dan Swäno), which includes lots of bonus material, that was released by Pulverised Records and Chaos Records earlier this year:

https://pulverised.bandcamp.com/album/internal-caustic-torments
https://chaos-records.bandcamp.com/album/internal-caustic-torments

OK — HERE’S THE TEASER:

http://www.facebook.com/wombbath
http://www.darkdescentrecords.com
http://pulverised.bigcartel.com