Ho hum, another Rogga Johansson project… what’s that, 246 bands now? Though to be fair, of his many many bands, I find Revolting to be one of his better efforts, especially the 3 album run of The Terror Threshold, 
In Grisly Rapture and Hymns of Ghastly Horror. The last of which, was the last Revolting album I reviewed.

And that’s mainly because the last couple of albums, Visages of the Unspeakable and Monoliths of Madness, just kinda were ‘there’ and really didn’t do anything for me. Maybe it was Johansson-fatigue or the band’s shift away from hokier, B movie horror themes to more serious Lovecraftian themes or just that there were better Swedish death metal options over that period, I just wasn’t digging Revolting as much.

And that ‘meh’ feeling continues with album number 7. I’m just not into it. The 9 song, 31-minute album blows by with typical Swedish gusto, and this project’s more melodic, solo-filled ‘fun’ style, that was kinda cool on the first few albums, but has lost its luster. I mean it’s not like Rogga’s projects are the most experimental or progressive bands out there, you enjoy the likes of Revolting, Paganizer, Echelon, Down Among the Dead Men, Megascavanger, Putrevore, Reek, and such because they are what they are, and you know what you are getting. But at some point, its all kinda the same.

From opener “Defleshed” to closer “Revolted by Life Itself”, none of the tracks really stand out, all delivering pretty much the same pace and structure from start to finish; either a mid-paced stomp (“1888”, “Daggers That Mimic Lifes Pain” or more up-tempo gallop laced with a melodic lead of some sort ( interchangeable quartet of the title track, “Sorrow as a Companion”, “Dragged back to the Cellar”, “To The Bitter Bleeding End”),  and frankly none of it really sticks. None of it is as catchy or death n roll as his recent Reek project from earlier this year or as full-on melodic death metal as his Furnace project or as purely old school death metal as Humanity Delete. It’s sort of a non-commital mish mash of all of them. To be honest, Worthless’s new album, Melancholic Rites, does it better.

However, if you are looking for a meat a potatoes, simple, Swedish death metal album with Roggas trademark riffs, then Revolting is arguably his most Rogga project of all the Rogga projects. But the earlier albums are much more fun Rogga projects.

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