I couldn’t be more excited to share this release with you all. It’s not only the legendary band’s highly anticipated new full length, but it’s also Wombbath‘s best album in decades maybe, or ever. I daresay they’ve taken the classic “old school death metal” sound ahead with this hugely ambitious album. Two of the songs are currently streaming on Bandcamp HERE. Don’t miss out on this one – it’s definitely an AOTY contender!
Wombbath (Sweden) – Agma (Death Metal)
Genre – Death Metal
Release Date – December 31st, 2021
Record Label – Transcending Obscurity Records
For fans of: Carnage, Grave, Entombed, Gatecreeper, Revel In Flesh, Heads For The Dead, Hypocrisy, Edge of Sanity, Desultory
After releasing their 30th anniversary release in ‘Tales of Madness’ and giving us a glimpse of their progressive approach in the two new songs that were part of that compilation, Wombbath return with the mightiest album of their career. It lays waste to everything they’ve done in the last few years because this album is a quantum leap ahead. Just when it seemed that the old school death metal genre was stagnating and the whole HM-2 sound was getting redundant, it took the very legends to breathe new life into this style and show us how to evolve without betraying it completely. ‘Agma’ is fiercely experimental in the way it introduces high pitched vocals, violins, and eerie melodies to the firmly old school and robust-sounding pummelling death metal that we’ve come to expect from them, with lurching riffs and grinding parts. To that extent, the refreshing experimental parts not only coexist with the traditional death metal sound but they complement them in ways hitherto unexperienced. Every song on this ambitious double album offers something different, either challenging or unique, and warrants its place on it. It’s exhilarating to listen to these ancient death metal warriors and their brilliant application, which makes even a time-worn genre sound exciting all over again, with constant innovations holding the ability to surprise and overwhelm when newer bands don’t. ‘Agma’ is a tour de force in the style, an anomaly, an aberration which is deliberate and well thought out. It takes exceptional courage to evolve even after so many years, when most so-called legendary bands are doing their best to recreate the same old sound that got them known in the first place, and if only for that reason, Wombbath deserve your attention. It’s another thing that Wombbath have decimated the perception of old school death metal with this album that’s just as potent and captivating as ever.
Line up –
Håkan Stuvemark: Guitar
Jonny Pettersson: Guitar, Vocals
Thomas von Wachenfeldt: Guitar, violin
Jon Rudin: Drums
Matt Davidson: Bass
Tracks 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16 written by Håkan Stuvemark
Tracks 3, 6, 9, 13, 15 written by Jonny Pettersson
Tracks 1 and 7 written by Thomas von Wachenfeldt
Agma was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jonny Pettersson at Studio Unbound, Sweden.
Additional vocals on Departure from the light: Håkan Stuvemark
Additional vocals on A world of destruction: Thomas von Wachenfeldt
Band painting by Benny Moberg
Wombbath logo and album logo by Håkan Stuvemark
Cover art by Juanjo Castellano (The Black Dahlia Murder, Paganizer)
Track listing –
1. The Law Of Everything
2. At The Giant’s Feet
3. The Seventh Seal
4. Inquisition Reborn
5. Blindly They Follow
6. A World Of Destruction
7. Misantropi Och Förakt
8. Breathe In The Flames
9. The Age Of Death
10. Oh Fire Of Hate
11. In Decay They Shall All Fester
12. Divine Pain
13. The Dead And The Dying
14. Departure From The Light
15. Scorned Existence
16. On A Path Of Repulsion