"Sweven" by Morbus Chron

Morbus Chron are a death metal band from Stockholm, Sweden that have been around since 2007. Sweven is their fourth release, and second full LP release. Depending on how you look at it, this is either the follow up to 2012's A Saunter Through the Shroud EP or 2011's Sleepers In the Rift LP.

This band is another unknown to me. One of my favorite things is being able to introduce new music to people who have never heard these bands.

Like much of what has been happening on this site, this band is metal and they refer to themselves as Death Metal, but put the Tampa Bay Death Metal like Deicide or Morbid Angel out of your head, because this band is so very, very far from that that it is nearly incalculable.

Can you be Swedish and NOT metal?

In the modern age of metal subgenres, just about anything that can be dreamed has become a subgenre. One of the ones that I find the silliest is "symphonic death metal." It just feels like such a contrived statement, but if you were to pin me down, that is the label that Morbus Chron would get from me.

This album feels like a symphony in ten movements. This album flows so well, it could have only been a single track.

It is largely instrumental but grandiose and dynamic. Keep bands like Obituary and even the mighty Carcass out of sight and out of mind when sampling Sweven. Though heavier than most non-metalheads could stand, it does not feel like they much care about the arms race of heavy as much as they do the craft of songwriting. The vocals, while appropriately growling for Swedish Death Metal, are very sparse. These stories are told by fingers and not words.

The songs are big and full. This ten track record is a total keeper.

Release: 3/4/2014
Genre: Death Metal, Symphonic Death Metal
Label: Century Media
Run time: 52:43
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Tracklisting:
1) Berceuse
2) Chains
3) Towards A Dark Sky
4) Aurora In The Offing
5) It Stretches In The Hollow
6) Ripening Life
7) The Perennial Link
8) Solace
9) Beyond Life's Sealed Abode
10) Terminus