The bands that play melodic Death Metal from Gothenburg are way too many. Even some bands that, let's say, started this kind of sound have started going down. Since this scene has not many new things to give, can new bands like DEGRADEAD give a fresh breath of air?

Even though I searched really hard to find a proper bio about the band, I couldn't find anything. I managed to find out one or two things, though. First of all, those guys are from Stockholm, Sweden. After playing live for quite a time, they released their on- and-only demo of the band, called Death Row. And with that release Jesper Stromblad from IN FLAMES took notice of them. So they went to Gothenburg to record their first album, Til Death Do us Apart in IF Studios.

In the introduction of this review I made a question. And I think it is time to answer it. Well, DEGRADEAD are not going to give anything to the Gothenburg Metal scene. I won't say that this is a bad album, no. And maybe they have some good ideas. Furthermore, the production is impressive. Jesper Stromblad and Daniel Svensson (IN FLAMES) co-engineered the recording and mixing of the album, so everything seems right. But there is a huge problem. Just by reading the small bio at the back of the promo, and seeing the cover of the album, I thought that I was going to deal with another clone of IN FLAMES or DARK TRANQUILLITY. And after I listened Till Death Do us Apart for the first time, unfortunately I wasn't wrong. I really liked the first two songs. But from then on, the entire album lacks of inspiration and originality. To tell you the truth, when I was listening to the album for the first time, I knew when a break was coming or the solo etc...

Seriously, most of those bands that are playing that melodic Death Metal from Gothenburg have to do something and add some personal 'touch' on the songs. DEGRADEAD have the potential to do something like that. There are not bad. They just have to be original.