Death metal is a genre that prides itself on excess. Blood, gore, viscera, murder, serial killers and every other gnarly topic you can think are all within its lyrical crosshairs, and across its near-four-decade history there have been a host of bands who’ve matched those extreme themes with some truly disgusting music.
Lik, a Stockholm supergroup featuring members of Katatonia and Bloodbath, are historians of their genre. Their music revisits their genre’s early-90s Scandinavian sound, while their new album Necro features songs about war, death, necrophilia and other such lovely things. So, I sat down with guitarist (and Katatonia bassist) Niklas Sandin to get his picks for the most disturbing, offensive and violent-sounding albums death metal has ever spat up. Enjoy!
Disgorge – She Lay Gutted (Unique Leader, 1999)
“She Lay Gutted is very relentless and quite nasty. It’s very guttural and I feel that it almost crosses the border into grindcore. It’s technical: it’s one of those albums where you really need to focus to hear the riffs. They’re very Stockholm death metal, with the chainsaw sound. And the artwork is very romantic. Ha ha ha!
“I think a friend recommended it to me. He liked those kinds of bands from the Unique Leader roster. I don’t listen to it much nowadays but I go back to it when I want to clear my head. If I want to do a crash-dump on my brain, it works.”
Hate Eternal – Fury & Flames (Metal Blade, 2008)
“This is an album you need to listen to over and over again. The guitar work and how they arrange the music, it’s not, like, ‘straight-on’. You don’t just go, ‘OK, this is this song now.’ But it’s very brutal. I like the production. It works in the same manner as the Disgorge album: if I’m feeling sleepy on a plane or going somewhere, I can put it on and I’m energised again.
“[Cannibal Corpse guitarist and Hate Eternal member] Erik Rutan produced this, and I think he has what you need to be a good death metal producer. It feels like he’s someone who lives and breathes death metal, not only by producing other bands but doing Hate Eternal for ages.”
Dismember – Death Metal (Nuclear Blast, 1997)
“My first Dismember album was Death Metal. My sister gave it to me. She used to get involved in Sweden’s national radio, something called Grottan, which means ‘the cave’ in English. She’d stay up late and answer their questions on metal. She won loads of stuff, including that album. She fell out of love with metal a few years later and I adopted quite a few records from her.
“The thing with Death Metal, it’s very brutal, but it also has melodic, Iron Maiden-esque leads. It’s a little bit Gothenburg. It’s in and out with how melodic it is. It starts very melodic, then comes a brutal song! It’s like watching a horror movie: if it’s monsters and gore and knives in the stomach all the time it loses its efficiency. There need to be calm parts as well.”
Decapitated – Organic Hallucinosis (Earache, 2006)
“I’ve always been a fan of Decapitated, especially their earlier work. The one that really resonates with me is Organic Hallucinosis. It’s their only only one with Adrian Kowanek on vocals, as he was very sadly part of that accident [the band’s tour bus crashed in 2007, paralysing Kowanek and killing drummer Witold Kiełtyka].
“It’s a very consistent album, and its songs just hit you harder and harder. It works every time and I’m never disappointed when I put it on. It’s also a real highlight of Vogg’s [bandleader Wacław Kiełtyka]: he’s a terrific songwriter and guitarist. He has something special with his solos. He has a very clean solo sound – sometimes it’s almost too nice for death metal!”
Vader – Litany (Metal Blade, 2000)
“When I was a teenager, I went into a record shop here in Stockholm and saw that cover. I remember playing that album for the first time, cranking the volume, and hearing that kick drum! Doc’s [late drummer Krzysztof Raczkowski] playing is so brutal! It flattens your face.
“My favourite track is Xeper and, if I’m not mistaken, Vader are going to be doing some Litany shows. I would love to see one of those shows, but I’m not sure I’m gonna make it. Ha ha!”
Lik’s new album Necro is out on April 18 via Metal Blade
