Since forming in 2007 in Sweden, Swedish Death/Thrash four piece STERBHAUS have released two full length albums, with "Angels For Breakfast ...And God For Lunch" (a pretty ballsy album title in itself) as their most recent. And if I had to sum it up? I think insane would be a pretty good word for it - and I don't mean that in a bad way.

Now let me get started by saying that the technical ability on display here is very impressive. Hammarström's vocals are foreboding, and growling, and heavy, and perfectly complement the sounds of the instruments all around him. They don't try to do anything overly fancy, but the riffs and they rhythms present here are definitely not simple. They may be defined as Thrash or Death, but there's a skill to it that you don't always see in bands of these genre - they don't sound like they're just hitting their instruments and hoping to make something that resembles music. The combined guitar work from Ahovalli and Olovsson is frantic, but super heavy, whilst still retaining rhythm, and with some killer riffs that seem to come from all directions. Coupled with Hammarström's brutal bass, and Bingslius's almost galloping drumming, STERBHAUS create a sound that's not fully Death, not fully Thrash, not fully definable, but still awesome in its own right.

There's one thing that I'm not sure about, and that's the random bit of Country music in the middle of "Frogboiler". Yeah, Country. It doesn't last long, and only threw me out a little bit, so I suppose it just shows even more just how utterly mad these guys are. And I think it might have been a bit of a risky move on their part, because I think it could have gone wrong and left the listeners thinking 'what the heck was that?'. But to be fair, if bands aren't going to sometimes step away from the mould, then all the albums are going to sound the same and it could all get very boring. That is something that you definitely can't accuse STERBHAUS of being. They're not unpredictable, per se, but you shouldn't ever get complacent whilst listening to "Angels For Brekafast ...And God For Lunch" because they just might throw a curveball your way.

I think that STERBHAUS offer something a bit different to a lot of the Thrash / Death that's available right now. So if you're a fan of technical Thrash, or Melodic Death, then you should definitely check this out.