Nuclear Blast Music. Producer: Jonas Kjellgren.

Death Metal and Sweden in the same sentence at first glance may seem as incompatible as eating nuts and chewing gum at the same time.
 
The CD sleeve of ‘Only Inhuman’ looks suitably death metal, with it’s gothic metal gore graphic and photo of the furious band looking like they’re itching to start a bloodied Nordic war. Foxy looking uber-sexy bassist Karin Axellson is dressed like an axe wielding dominatrix who would seduce you one minute then decapitate you the next (this band is from the same Sweden as ABBA right?)
 
‘Melodic death metal from Sweden’ is this band’s guarantee, and I guess in a ham-fisted way this is not a bad general self description, as this aint Roxette from Sweden is it?
 
Picture the kicking and screaming bastard child of Metallica, Korn and even Bad Religion and you have a rough idea of the ‘Sonic Syndicate’ sound blueprint. Throw in lyrical emo angst and the odd Euro synth layering and there you have ‘Only Inhuman’.
 
The single ‘Denied’ is getting some airplay on MTV, something the band firmly has hand on phallus about on their MySpace page and website. ‘Denied’ is by far the best track on the album, with it’s contagious melody and ferocious, rapid fire playing, complete with obligatory groans and screams and the death lullaby lyric “I see smoke from the Eden fire watch it going higher and higher”. See how many times the band mentions the word ‘scar’ or ‘Zion’ and you win the prize in the ‘spot the repetitive metal cliché’ competition.
 
The albums first track, ‘Aftermath’ launches into a frenzied attack, with the addition of keyboard making it sound a bit like ‘The Final Countdown’ by ‘Europe’ on crack.
“Psychic Suicide’ features emo-ish ‘pain and suffering’ lyrics like “I recognized your scars, because I have them too! It cured my contamination to speak of each other's misery”. This band aint singing about flowers and kittens, you may have gathered.
 
Other tracks such as ‘Callous’ and ‘Double Agent 616’ are essentially speed metal with the odd guttural phlegmy scream to maybe remind us that they have ‘death’ in their metal as well. Yet there is plenty of melody and ‘singing’ here too, which makes it more interesting; it’s always better to hum a tune after the disc is over rather than simply hacking your grandmother to death after being possessed by the death metal likes of ‘Napalm Death’.
 
‘Enclave’, which is close enough to a power ballad (featuring piano if you can hear it under the pummel of the guitars) with the emphasis on power, leans very heavily on the angst ridden U.S sound, but again reminds us it is metal with the chunk of the rhythm guitar and the obligatory drum build ups and ‘urgent’ vocal.
 
Overall, this CD is pretty standard metal fare, but the melodic ingredient in some of the tracks gives it a more commercial or even, dare I say ‘pop’ edge that could see this band crossing over to the mainstream in the U.S and beyond. Beware of the new Swedish invasion!
 
Rating: 3 decomposing skulls out of 5