Before starting the review I have to confess that I'm rather clearly biased in favour of nearly every Swedish band's release that may "fall in my hands. In my mere opinion, Swedish artists have a weird "charisma of elaborating and developing the elements of music taught from nursery school - I should say - in the best possible way, in order to create musical compositions that definitely leave an at-least respected mark in the global Metal scene (even if I'm talking about genres I'm not fond, too). Well, I think that Scenteria are added to this long-long list from now on, with their debut "Art Of Aggression  CD.
Scenteria, hailing from Halmstad, were formed back in July 2002 by Stefan Persson (vocals/guitars) and Niklas Pettersson (guitars), who had previously collaborated in various bands/projects. Deciding to start something "serious, this time they formed Scenteria with Johan Andreasson (bass) and Daniel Landin (drums) takin' over the rhythm section "duties. The first demo "Signs Of Hypnotica was a home studio recording, but with sufficient sound. The band, instead of trying to searh for a deal, recorded a new demo entiteld "Descent of Darkness in October, 2002.
The overall quality of this effort was by far better than the first one. It was time for this demo to be sent out to several record companies, but there was "poor response... This was war! A third demo - "Path of Silence - was recorded in 2003, further better than the 2nd one! It was time for a bunch of record labels to show their interest, this resulting in a record deal with New Aeon Media in the beginning of 2004.
On to the music... Scenteria perform a mixture between Death and Thrash Metal, with lots of melodic moments (sometimes compered to old In Flames, when they had a small relationship with Melodic Death Metal). Sometimes, also, The Haunted may come to mind. But - most of all - the dominant position among the band's influences must be "ruled by Dark Tranquillity, mostly in the way the twin guitars perform their parts, with one six-string riffing hard and the other "drifting into purple dark melodies. The rhythm section duo seems to be in great mood, with lots of double-bassing (most songs are fast and brutal), while the lead vocals - without being that "aggressive - reveal a pure "heated frontman with apparently everlasting supplies of hatred (take out the chorus in Addicted).
The production is crystal clear (as always, in Sweden), giving the band the chance to show 100% of it's intentions. Best "shots from this CD could easily be "Arts Of Lunacy and "Art Of Aggression, yet without underating the rest of the tracklisting.
No minus?... Well, judging from the above: originality! Undoubtly, Scenteria is great for a band that's releasing it's first CD, but they seem a little bit "trapped into this classic "Swedish Sound. Thus, cheerfully applausing for this first effort, the average Euro-Thrash/Euro-Death devotee will keep in mind to be more "harsh against the band's next work. But... till the future, just enjoy the present!