REVOLTING is a death metal band from Sweden, one of the many projects involving the legendary Rogga Johansson.  As a product from one of his most prolific and long running bands, "The Shadow At The World's End," is the band's seventh full length album. This album is immediately impressive and commands attention for the entire thirty one minute run time.  Some might feel this is a bit too short but, for the style, I think it is just about the perfect length.  There are no frills or extras.  No intros, interludes, outros, or bonus tracks.  This simply an album that knows what it wants and what it must do to achieve that goal.   Could it use another song or two?  Perhaps... but I always judge quality over quantity but this rotten corpse of an album is bursting at the seems with the quality one expects from Swedish anything.

The guitar tone is damn near perfect—drenched in the famous HM-2 sound for that buzz saw sound.  But haven't we heard that all before?  Well, yes.  But this album's slick production values keeps it from sounding too much like a clone and more like the business end of a sharpened ax. Then there's the subtle use of melody in the guitars.  This isn't the Gothenburg treatment--this is much more subtle and ingrained into the riffs themselves.  The melody is used to fill in the space around the more abrasive riffs and for extra layers that allow the bass and drums to play off of nicely.

The opening track, "Defleshed," is a ripper of a track. It is immediately fast, coming at break neck speeds backed by crisp drumming, hammering bass, slick guitars and evenly balanced death growls that are brutal but still intelligible. The second track, "1888," is no less fierce but lowers the tempo back for a more grinding approach to brutality.  The drums and bass go a long way in hammering the heaviness from the layer to straight up the top.  The guitar solo towards the song's end is exactly what I was talking about with the melody earlier.  REVOLTING's approach to incorporating it into some of the more intense parts is refreshing.

The start and stopping of the riffs in the beginning of "Daggers That Mimic Life's Pain," is akin to some ancient beast coming upon you.  The stanza's settle into a mid paced groove that the song handles wonderfully, just as the melody that grows out of it during the chorus. The highlight of the album is the deep cut "Carnage Will Come."  The opening riffs are speed infused intensity but also very dizzying and hypnotic.  The song's middle portion?  If I was going to get into a street fight with twenty people, I'd want that passage playing over and over while I get my ass beat.  The guitar solo near the song's end goes right alongside it.

The final track, "Revolted By Life Itself," takes the approach of "unrelenting death march," Seriously though, these riffs could filet meat right off the bones and the later half of the sound will pulverize whatever is left.  That riff behind the guitar solo is heavy as hell, very dense with plenty of its own meat. Any fan of death metal needs this album in their collection now.  It is a satisfying piece of extreme metal that plays to its strength without wearing out its welcome or getting in its own way.