Unleashed - Midvinterblot
Swedish quartet Unleashed have no less than seven previous studio albums to their name, and if you're familiar with any of those then it will come as little surprise to you that album number eight, 'Midvinterblot', is yet another slab of Viking metal. First raising their heads out of the trenches of the Swedish scene in 1989, Unleashed were forged in an era when the Viking metal label meant something different to the twee and cringe worthy 'battle metal' bollocks magazines like "Metal Hammer" would so readily lump them in with today. 'Midvinterblot' is meaty thrash (Unleashed themselves reckon they're death, but hey, what do they know?) which just happens to have lyrics about Vikings and "The Lord of the Rings" and a whacking great burning Thor's hammer on the cover. There are no keyboards, acoustic guitars, female vocals or sweaty loincloths here, and 'Midvinterblot' is all the better for it.
Unleashed's closest stylistic contemporaries are fellow Swedes Amon Amarth, who have a similar steady-paced thrash with fairly guttural vocals thing going on. Unfortunately, however, Unleashed don't quite have the songwriting bite of their countrymen. Where Amon Amarth would have you raising a horn of mead and bellowing along, more often than not Unleashed's riffs and choruses pass through your ears without sticking. This is a shame, as Unleashed are clearly a collective of passionate and talented individuals, but they fall just that little bit short of being talented enough to make 'Midvinterblot' into something exceptional.
Still, there are far worse albums doing the rounds out there, and if you've got a spare 46 minutes and fancy a bit of old-fashioned Viking metal bereft of the cheese so prevalent in the genre today, then Unleashed might just hit the spot, especially if you down a few beers first. But to call 'Midvinterblot' 'one of the most impressive albums in the history of death metal,' as bassist/vocalist Johnny Hedlund does in Unleashed's promo bio, is plainly ridiculous.