Swedish death metal played in the USA is more of a needle in a haystack type of deal.  California’s now-defunct Fatalist was one of the better USA type of bands and they had a short run, with minimal output but their material still owns.

Trying to find another band that, captured that buzzsaw Swedish sound, came to fruition with South Dakota’s Angerot with the release of their monster 2018 debut The Splendid Iniquity.  The Divine Apostate followed in 2020 and was even more massive with the guitar tone as well as atmospherics. The Profound Recreant is the band’s third album and 9 songs in 38 minutes are the perfect run-time for this sucker.

“Das Salz” opens with some vocal chanting.  I believe the lyrics and song title are Austrian. “They Shall Take Up Serpents” then erupts with a bludgeoning HM-2 guitar tone as the mid-paced crusher then has some killer guitar solos all early on.  The song picks up speed with some excellent gruff vocals and growls.  The song has plenty of melody going for it and then the song gets into some slower atmospherics, with the soloing and epic greatness..  I urge you to crank this on a surround sound system and watch sinkholes develop around your neighborhood as it swallows you, your family and your dog spot into oblivion.

“Bastard Creature” is an interesting song title that begins with a slow and heavy atmospheric build up and the mid-paced crushing heaviness has that buzzsaw guitar sound down do the proverbial T.  The isolated guitar riff and then growl gets into a fast pace speed, before getting back into that heavy groove before getting into the fast speed once again.  Then into even faster territory with the blast beat.  It’s fast and heavy and the heaviness does not subside on the blasts, which is terrific.  The guitar solo, which follows, is piped in louder and the squealing solo is hell bent on tearing a hole through your eardrums.  The dual-layered vocals are used to great effect and some really killer growls.  The spoken word moments towards the end of the song then ushers in some acoustic/keyboard moments where the band expands their sound further with the atmospherics.  The heaviness continues along with some guitar solos reminding me of Mr. Murphy on the Disincarnate album, especially the opening part of the solo.

The title track follows starting with atmospheric moments and more brutal moments of blasting and the jumpiness at the 2.45 section is killer, and then back into more atmospheric/melodic moments and at under 5 minutes the band incorporates so many epic moments without putting forth a 10-minute song and I very much appreciate that.

“Behold the Blessed Black” has such a terrific and catchy guitar riff.  It’s fun and most of all it’s heavier than you after your ninth go around at the Golden Corral on Sunday, right after church with the family.  Many guitar solos abound and once again the band expands the melodic moments with the bruising style of Swedish death metal heaviness.

The Profound Recreant is an excellent album from Angerot showcasing the band increasing their atmospheric and melodic side, as well as continuing to bludgeon with their brutality.  This is all done creatively and the musicianship is damn good.  The album cover has a little Dan Seagrave action to it and the production is punchy, heavy and really lifts the album high up there on the Richter Scale of sheer ferociousness.

While Angerot borrows ideas from certain classic Swedish death metal bands, there are so many fresh ideas on this album and Angerot is the leader in the USA of playing Swedish stylized death metal.  Killer stuff.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments