So the Swedes have gone and done it again. Just when you think all's quiet on the Balkan front, JUST BEFORE DAWN comes up with the most Swedish War Metal album you could think of, and it's from Rogga Johansson, no less. I just reviewed another one of his projects, HUMANITY DELETE, a few months ago. Does he not rest? Does the Swedish Metalhead in him consume his existence? Well, even if that's the case, I'm not going to complain, because he along with his buddies in destruction have come up with another 8/10 album - something I'm sure he's used to producing already.

If you like Swedish Metal, there's nothing to complain about this album. The guitars are thick, meaty, and full of that good old crunch - a sound that has been perfected and continually exploited by our metal brothers up North. But seriously, JUST BEFORE DAWN doesn't stop there. The vocal delivery for each song is monumentally monstrous. They take the best of extreme guttural vocals and encase it in a musical shell of pure pummeling Metal. It's very much like a bullet, and this analogy is fitting because there seems to be nothing that JUST BEFORE DAWN is obsessed with more than war. The gun powder is the vocals, and the shell is the music. When you fire that damn thing, it's going to cause some damage.

The marketability of this album further pushes the envelope with the fact that it is a supergroup consisting of some of Sweden's most dedicated Death Metal musicians. You've got the brothers Johansson, ex-AMON AMARTH's Anders Biazzi, and five more dudes in the same vein. Rick Rozz (DEATH, MASSACRE) also dropped in to contribute a blazing solo. When you've got all these people in the same recording studio, it's definitely going to be explosive. The pace of the album trotters along grindingly effectively, and grind is the right word here. There are BOLT THROWER similarities, ASPHYX influences, and even a MESHUGGAH vibe.

The album is packed to the punch with victorious riffing. It's a thick, mean, chunky slab of War Metal music. Think prime cut steak - the shameless kind with layers of fat and when consumed, is both full of chewy goodness and raw flavour. It's War Metal at its most typical, but also at its best. You won't get any half-assed sensibilities with this album - it's just blinding, deafening, shameless War Metal, as pure as it gets.