Swedish Death Metal is without a shadow of a doubt a legendary beast, the Gothenburg sound is very quickly recognizable, fast, brutal, melodic, original, those are just some of the terms that come to mind when describing the likes of DARK TRANQUILITY and AT THE GATES. So coming from the land that gave birth to legends, how does the debut album by Stockholm's SMOTHERED fair?

Well, not too bad, actually, it fairs very well, after the intro appropriately titled "The Ritual" I was thrown right into the music that I loved growing up, the band have certainly taken a page or two from the book of their predecessors, and it takes just one listen to songs like "Re-Animated" to realize where this band is coming from. But there's a bit of an issue with that as well, this album is excellent, and the quartet can certainly be described as fast, brutal and melodic as I described above, the issue however, is that this album doesn't fit the bill on the fourth and final description, and that, is being original. I can't argue with the excellent musical skills of the band, and the songwriting is great as well, the thing is that I've heard this before, the style is absolutely unchanged from their predecessors, and that originality is truly lacking, despite some great songs like "No One Left To Kill", the album simply fails to showcase the band as something different, something original.

That being said, the album is a very good and impressive debut, which does showcase a lot of potential for the future of the band.