Puteraeon - The Crawling Chaos (2014)

Puteraeon's latest opus, The Crawling Chaos, is very unlikely to breach the Swedish sound-off barrier, being that it's nearly a direct tribute to classics like Left Hand Path. But that aside, a few listens through the thing have convinced me that one should not be so quick to write them off, if only because they seem to really engage with their subject matter, engage with their songwriting and in the end provide us a pretty genuine window into the death metal ideals of their forerunners. This is accomplished almost entirely through their strict attention to melody and harmony, far more so than the usual runts of the Swedeath litter, which provides just the correct amount of musicality and atmosphere to save this one from the chaff-bin and put it with the rest of the wheat. That's not high praise, and this disc doesn't deserve such, but you could listen to this front to end, the entire 45 minutes and not really come away too bored or banging your head into a wall at the vast level of derivation it subsists upon.

In short, it's Left Hand Path with a few cruder grooves and d-beats shuffled in to balance out its more interesting ideas with something for the pit ghouls. The set-up is great, with the grimy, doomy grave dirt melodies inaugurating the 7-minute, sepulchral "Wrath" raising the bar for my expectations, and a number of riffs across most of the individual tracks providing some follow-through...only just not enough that it seems incredibly level or consistently memorable. Rhythm guitars are ugly, Swedish, but in accounting for themselves they incorporate a fair share of melodies that travel off in some fulfilling directions. In fact, had the band changed production styles and tones to something more unique, and dropped a few of the bland d-beat drive-punk passages, we could be hearing a fresher take on the death metal nostalgia that has started to corrode its welcome. Alas, The Crawling Chaos is planted too firmly in its safety zone. There are occasional riffs which deviate, like the opener of "The Abyssal" which is a grinding, evil paean to Consuming Impulse-era Pestilence, and in truth about 3-4 of the songs here would have made for a killer EP, but like a lot of old school stuff I get, the 'good' parts are watered down by a surrounding miasma of 'meh'.

Vocals are a little blunter and more monotonous than, say, L-G Petrov, but they at least compliment the growling with some even further guttural bursts. I can feel the repulsion bass lines spewing out sewage on the bottom end, but they never present themselves as something that deserves the same attention as the other instruments (a common fault in this style). The drumming is steady and has a live show feel to it, but in terms of beats and fills there's nothing really creative happen, it just happens to work within the context of the style like you'd expect from most bands playing at this level. The Lovecraft lyrical theme seems more or less serious, as it was on the first two discs these guys released, but this is such a commonplace thing in the 21st century that you wonder what the old corpse of everyone's favorite horror author would think about this. Personally I don't feel that The Great Old One would choose Swedish death metal as his entrance music when he steps in the ring against humanity (in a brief, one-sided bout). Nah...something more chaotic, orchestrated, layered and probably impossible for our species to comprehend. But the Mythos, and cosmic horror is such a fascination that it doesn't really get old, even when you're using a title like The Crawling Chaos which has been done before many times. So, yeah, not any better than the last two Puteraeon discs, but at the same time, no worse. You like Demonical, Revel in Flesh, or the original purveyors of this sound from that important 1990-1993 era, and you're not tired of the endless recycling of those ideas, then I don't imagine this one would put you out much.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.puteraeon.com/

Puteraeon - Cult Cthulhu (2012)

Puteraeon may not have stood so tall above their Swedish death metal throwback peers that their debut The Esoteric Order could be mistaken for something 'unforgettable', but it was unquestionably a well done example of how bands like Carnage and Dismember had a magic immemorial about them which is still possible to recapture when you're not spending half your record fucking around with some of the laziest riffs possible. I'm a little late in covering its followup, Cult Cthulhu, but as the Swedes are on the verge of releasing their third full-length I thought I'd check it out, and would you fucking know it, I don't regret making that choice, even if they still leave something to be desired...

I feel like somewhat of a flip-flopper, because this is presented in a pretty common style which I will either love or condemn to the pit of mediocrity depending on nitpicking of individual riffs, and apart from the ravenous, brutal growl of the frontman, it's pretty much lock, stock and barrel worship of Left Hand Path, Life is an Everflowing Stream and Dark Recollections, with the added benefit of being recorded in the 21st century. So those Sunlight studio rhythm guitar tones sound as plump as over gorged zombies, the harmonies sad and sepulchral, the drums fresh and hellish with kicks that sound like they're stomping straight up your spine. But somehow, the chord patterns and abysmal atmosphere created by the churning of the guitars against the drums stir in me the very dark mood I so loved about its overt influences. It's swampy, oblique, and maybe even evocative of the titular Mythos divinity, no matter how corny the title itself seems.

How about just Club Cthulhu? Bathe in a spa of squamous tentacles, stinking maws and other things that spell your end. Anyway, the Elder ones are nothing to make light of, and I doubt that was the intention of Puteraeon, just to write a savage record in the mold of their heroes. And this is no more or less that very thing. Inspired, not inspiring, chock full of guts but very little resonant evil beyond its visceral finish. If you're sick to death of this sort of cutting and pasting of a style (and I usually am), without adding much new to it (Revel in Flesh, Gluttony and a million others), then this isn't apt to change your mind, but I felt like the sophomore was at least well done. Examples of better efforts in this style include the first few Demonical outings, Entrails, the Miasmal and Tormented debuts, but I managed to make it through this brain-sucking 45 minutes with what shreds of my sanity remained failing to find offense in the style. I hope with the new album they'll try a little harder to differentiate themselves, or build upon the past rather than clone it, but this is just passable.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.puteraeon.com/

Puteraeon - The Esoteric Order (2011)

Puteraeon is yet another round-up of semi-successful Swedish death metal musicians into a decisive act of old school worship, and yet they once again prove that the style has legs to stand on, by effectively crafting hostile hammers of crushing tone and thick, pungent atmosphere. Bands like Tormented and Ribspreader are good references, because they have a similar approach with the enormous production standards used to modernize their libations to the gods of the genre: Entombed, Grave, and Dismember. You've heard this all before, but when its delivered with this much loving brutality, you're going to find it difficult not to at least smile...until your knees rupture and your head bends off your spine from the sheer, bass-heavy gravity of The Esoteric Order.

These gentlemen have a lot of experience in bands like Taetre, Immemoreal, Nominon, Inverted and Thorium, so it's not out of left field that they know how to lay down a pure smack down like it's 1991 all over again, with all the tools now available to make those pure Swedish guitar tones thicker and even more wretched. Tunes like "Graverobber", "Whispers of the Dead" and "Dead Once More" make it impossible not to lurch around like an animate corpse, and the bristling leads and overall, thick as molasses atmosphere to the record make it a total package of derivative but delightful darkness. The lyrics revolve heavily around the HP Lovecraft Mythos and cult/campy horror flicks, so it's safe enough territory for the pulp loving misfit who attends zombie walks while not alienating those who seek Indecent & Obscene Pt. II or Clandestine: The Musical on Ice.

I've heard this style performed so many times now that I'm almost fed up with it, but these bands love this shit and obviously there are fans devouring it straight from the bowels of antiquity. But think of it this way: if bands like Entombed or Grave had time machines, they would have jerked their cult classics forward to the future, smothered them in this ominous tonal largesse, then transported them back to make even more jaws slack in the early 90s. Old dogs with a few new tricks, indeed. Fortunately, The Esoteric Order is yet another in those long lines of exceptions, so despite its lack of intricate tweaking, it's the equivalent of an addictive, crunchy snack. You think you're through with the bag, and can put it aside for later, but you've just got to reach in and consume one more. Just one more archaic sounding Swedish death record. One more. Really...I mean it. Well done, Puteraeon.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.puteraeon.com/