Ho Hum- another semi super group plying old school Swedish death metal and amazingly this one doesn’t feature Rogga Johanssen, though it  sounds just like one of his many projects  and does feature one of his other projects’ cohorts- namely P.Myrén (Paganizer, Facebreaker) and R Karlsson (Facebreaker, Edge of Sanity, Scar Symmetry, Devian, Incapacity) – so the pedigree is there for a perfectly competent and credible slab of old school Swedish death metal that culls from all of the above bands- and that’s exactly what you get. Nothing more, nothing less.

Originally released on Cyclone Empire last year, Metal Blade’s licensing deal with that label allows them to release them state side, so now Zombified can be exposed to a larger audience, though frankly I’m not sure there really is a need. Carnage, Slaughter and Death is a solid stab at the style that mostly Rogga Johanssen related bands like Revolting, Ribspreader, Facebreaker, Megascavenger, Bone Gnawer  and The Grotesquery  play- its down tuned, mid range groovy occasionally blasty death metal with a Stockholm nod, great guitar tone and simple effective riffs. Even without Rogga, if you’ve heard any of those bands, you’ve heard Zombified.

I wanted to like this more, but I ultimately had to realize this is basically a Rogga Johanssen project minus Rogga- it’s got the exact same pace, themes and tone, the same mix of bruising grooves and snarling d-beat and a few grindcore -ish blasts. At time it does bare its teeth more than say Revolting, and there’s none of the playful melodies, but at its core you know this sound well and he fact the core of the band is versed and experienced in this style gives it some credence, but this is far from a superior release.

The production isn’t quite as dusty as some of their peers, as the production shares more of the cleaner Incapacity, Scar Symmetry and Edge of Sanity vibe rather than Entombed, Grave or Dismember, but the backbone is there. But ultimately the song writing is a little bland, if energetic. The likes of “Pull the Trigger”, “Withering Souls” and “Reign of Terror” are all a good interchangeable romp but do little than provide a short term slab of death metal entertainment. Personally, as far as Swedish death metal supergroup/side projects go I’m looking forward to the Just Before Dawn collaboration to see if they can do better as this is pretty average.

[Visit the band's website]

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