So after splitting up shortly after 2011’s Opus Mortis VIII, with most of the members going on to form Cut Up (essentially Vomitory 2.0) and releasing a couple of solid albums, one of Sweden’s most long-running and purely, staunchly death metal (no groove metal or death ‘n’ roll diversions) bands is back together and it’s like they never even broke up.

Of course, the two Cut Up albums (2015s Forensic Nightmares and 2017s Wherever They May Rot), were basically Vomitory albums under a different guise, and to no surprise despite the hiatus and Cut Up detour, Vomitory still sounds like Vomitory. Buts that’s a good thing, as they have been one of the more consistent non Sunlight Swedish death metal bands of the last 20+ years.

For those new to Vomitory, they have been around since the early 90s, but rather than the then popular and much cloned ‘Swedish/Sunlight Sound”, Vomitory took a more brutal, Americanized sound and incorporated some grindcore as well. With power chord-based riffs, and more savage, gruesome themes (their debut was called Raped in their own Blood), they had a sound that was in the same area as Cannibal Corpse, Divine Empire, Hateplow, and such, and for 8 albums, did it really well.

And to the surprise of no one, that continues with this reunion/comeback album, All Heads Are Gonna Roll.  And roll they do, not some heads, but all heads, with 10 blistering tracks in 40 minutes that blow by with barely any solos (there are like 3 on the whole album), no breakdowns, or atmospheric breaks in sight.

Right from the breakneck opening title track to the closer “Beg For Death”, the album goes for the throat. Whether it violent, steady hacking jaunts like “Ode to the Meat Saw”, “Piece by Stinking Piece” and “Dead Man Stalking” or direct jugular rippers like “Decrowned”, “The Deepest Tomb” and ‘Disciples of the Damned”, they all have a bit of a grindcore/punk sneer to the riffs and with a guitar tone that’s less HM2 and more clean and thrashy (not surprising since producer lawrence Mackory has worked with the liked of Darkane, Nightrage, Defleshed and such).

But like grindcore, there are some sneaky, savage melodies in here, for example, “Raped, Strangled, Sodomized, Dead”, “Dead Man Stalking” and ‘”Beg For Death”;  those are fun goddamn riffs, despite the song titles. And it all adds up to a killer album from these grizzled veterans who know exactly what to do even after a (sort of) 12-year layoff.

[Visit the band's website]

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