Bloodbath: Grand Morbid Funeral (2014)

Grand?

Well, it’s a funeral, that’s for sure.

A long, long time ago Bloodbath released one of the best slabs of Swe-death of all time. Resurrection Through Carnage had the best possible version of that storied sound, and channeled it through some of the catchiest tunes known to all metal history. Over the years they’ve stayed consistently good, without quite reaching that level again, with more than one vocalist producing some of the best work of their careers. But now, rather than resurrection, we are faced with a funeral with more finality.


Grand Morbid Funeral gets the sound right. That’s apparently no challenge, as many bands have done it. The buzzsaw guitars, thundering drums, and guttural vocals can be done. Even with a new vocalist. We get that.

But these tunes are simply uninspired. There are hooks, sure, but who cares to growl along with these? There’s even a good sense of rhythm, the lurch-and-stumble borrowed from doom metal and sped up. But it feels like it’s all been done before, done better, and even done better by this band.

They looked like zombies on the cover of their legendary album. Now they play Swe-death like zombies, going through the motions, hungering for brains, but with cold, dead hearts. You could certainly do worse than listen to this one, but why waste your time on mediocrity?

The Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars