Just Before Dawn is a project started by Blood Mortized guitarist Anders Biazzi, just like the 2013 debut, the formula is devastatingly effective:  war themed, mid paced death metal rooted on Bolt Thrower and Hail of Bullets and a seemingly never ending parade of who is who in Swedish metal metal providing other instruments and the vocals.

OK, so sit down, this is going to take a while. For The Aftermath, Biazzi really called in some big guns outside of the Swedish death metal network  to serve up some vocals and some lead guitars, as the guest list  includes the likes of Rick Rozz (Massacre, Death), Dave Ingram (Benediction), Marc Grewe (Morgoth) as well us the usual guest vocal suspects including but not limited to Ralph Hauber (Revel in Flesh), Jonas Stahlhammer (Bombs of Hades, God Macabre), Jonas Lindblood (Putereaon), Jonas Jensson (Entombed AD, Centinex) and host of others. But to be honest, you’d be hard pressed to single any of them out, as they all provide a similarly gruff, throaty roaring or rasping backdrop to the salvo of mid range buzzing riffs and steady double bass.

The recipe is simple, with many of the riffs sounding pretty similar, having a moody, melancholy trundle, like a sad but angry tank plowing alone across a body strewn battlefield. It’s very powerful but simple akin to Hail of Bullets slower numbers  (i.e “General Winter” or “Berlin”), but  won’t ever be confused for a game changer and nor does it ever elevate beyond a steady, mid paced rumble, and if im being totally honest the tracks are a bit long for the style and pace they deliver, making for a slightly overly long album. But then again, Biazzi has a lot of guest mouths to feed.

Still, the simple, destructive charm and strength of the album, amid all the samples of air raid sirens, gun fire and war movie sound bites, is the the likes of “Lightning War” (featuring Ingram), “SoulBurner”, “Device of Utter Death”, “Bastogne”and and the rather effective “Incoming” rumble and lumber with precise, deliberate heft and just a touch of effective war like despondency, cos ya know war inst  a particularity happy or fun loving theme. The big, burly riffs, patient, brow furrowing, almost doom gait is consistently good as it is paced. I don’t think there is a blast beat anywhere to be found on the album as only “Feast of the Fire Demon” revs things up just a little bit more.

Another solid effort from Biazzi and co. (literally) who is adding to his Rogga Johansson /Dan Swano like involvement on the annals of Swedish death metal, and I look forward to see who else he gets involved in future Just Before Dawn releases, though I’d like to see  the focus on slightly more varied song writing.

[Visit the band's website]

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