When Håkan Stuvemark contacts me I listen!  He’s in a zillion bands.  Most notably, for my liking is: Wombbath (my review forthcoming), Rex Demonus and Consumption.  We’ve been in touch for like 5 years now and I did review the first Consumption album back in 2020, Recursive Definitions of Suppuration and loved the music and of course the Swedish death metal edge to it, especially since the band is from said country.  Håkan is a damn good guitarist and knows how to write quality and memorable death metal riffs, which keeps me coming back to his bands.

So I had no idea the third Consumption album, Catharsis, was out.  He sent me the promo and while I did like their second album from 2022, Necrotic Lust, Catharsis bests it.  Their first album was a shorty at under 30 minutes, and then these last two albums are much longer 45-50 minutes long.  Overall, I prefer shorter length albums, to me they are more impactful.  Anyway, let’s dive into this 12-song 50-minute long album.

“Exterminator” begins with a little ditty of a drum solo before going right for your gulliver with Håkan’s throaty death metal vocals – he also plays bass and guitar on this.  The band rounded out with Ludvig Johansson on guitars and Jon Skäre on drums.  This stable line-up has been intact for all the albums thus, creating a cohesiveness.  There’s some nice galloping old school beats at the 2.18 mark, right after the guitar solos and some blast beats too.  The guitar tone is most excellent.  Razor sharp and quite clear, not at all muddy.  The song has a quick fast part towards the end and then abruptly ends.

“Eaten by Dawn” has lots of killer 90’s era pinch harmonics and this opening gallop sequence is so damn catchy and fun.  That traverses right into a monster blast beat and it bludgeons as well as a terrific growl over this opening part.  The galloping moments though are terrific on this song and will make you want to get someone in a Sgt. Slaughter – Cobra Clutch and swing them around in circles all…damn…day!.  I did it to the local help at the supermarket, because they told me they do not bag groceries any longer…So guess what, yes, they received the Cobra Clutch!  This song has it all and I really like the faster moments, throaty gutturals, however these galloping old school nods to the 80’s and early 90’s are truly special and catchy.

“Womb of Worms” starts off slow with a massive heavy riff.  There are some melodious guitar harmonies on this sucker.  But this opening riff has it all, doomy, heavy and even a Finnish tinge to it.  There’s a speed up blast beat, then right into the signature gallop which Consumption uses to such great effect.  The speed is gradually increased, and some monster cymbal smashing is going on.  Jon was getting out some anger on this recording, let me tell you!  The song gets into a killer groove moment, which would create a real nice circle pit, but the band swiftly, gives that moment up for a higher velocity pace.  The guitar solo, erupting afterwards, is pretty melodic, as the song slows to a crawl, with the flip floppity double bass.  Some nice dual vocal moments which are well placed in this mix.  Another damn good song.

Catharsis is another solid slab of finely-tuned Swedish inspired death metal by Consumption.  50 minutes is a long death metal album, as was their prior one.  Maybe a little more streamlined in the future, to help with creating more of a wallop to the listener.  I love this album cover and the mix and production are great, as is the musicianship.  This album is a lot of fun!

[Visit the band's website]

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