Bloodbath - Survival of the Sickest (2022)

As a fan of both Nick Holmes AND Bloodbath, I was excited to hear what could be produced with them working together, especially since I had only been used to hearing his harsher death vocals over the earlier, slowest, death/doom Paradise Lost stuff. Grand Morbid Funeral sort of gave me what I wanted, but The Arrow of Satan is Drawn was a case of very diminishing returns, and frankly I felt like the band was trying to mold itself away from that well-produced, groovy death metal that put its all-star lineup on the map once again with another entity. Survival of the Sickest is a bit of a rebound from all that, and it's the collaboration I WANTED to hear once I knew Nick was joining the band, taking me back to the great, morbid fun riffing and production I enjoyed on discs like The Fathomless Mastery or Nightmares Made Flesh.

That's not to say it drops off the more atmospheric, filthy elements from the prior to records, it just takes them and places them sparingly into the core of what made Bloodbath so great to begin with. The Jonas Renkse bass here is super ruddy and filthy, and Anders and Tomas are just chopping the axes up between great old US or Swedish death metal riffing, tried and true with little flights of atmospheric leads that erupt at just the right time over some protracted Nick Holmes growl which he often layers above the syllabic grunting of the verses and chorus. Part of me had hoped Jonas and Anders would at least continue together in this band if not Katatonia...it seems unlikely, but if this is going to be their swan song, then it's well worthwhile. Not to diminish the contributions of the rest...Martin Axenrot's drumming is muscular, grooving and a perfect accompaniment to the churning, Morbid Angel-like grooves in "Dead Parade" or the whirlwind chaos assault of "Malignant Maggot Therapy". Tomas and Anders have more riffs and zippy evil leads than a shelf full of OSDM classics...

...and Nick has TRULY found his stride here, sounding just as awesome here as any of the older albums with Mikael or Peter singing. It's fun to hear those longer growls in faster-paced music, and if I had ever any question of him fitting in with this band that is now officially crushed, because he's fuckin' great. Survival of the Sickest isn't the catchiest death metal record of all time, but it's deliciously old school in all the best ways where that ancient sound had just started to convert to the brutality of the 90s and 00s. This is definitely not your stock Swedish overdrive sound circa Entombed, it's got a little bit of that inspiration but it's much more fun and groovy, with a guitar tone and writing style that don't necessarily place it so much geographically as it does chronologically. 45 minutes of fun that should satisfy anyone into Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Edge of Sanity, Hypocrisy, Vader, and death metal in general.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

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