Filthy Music Review - 'Miasmal: Cursed Redeemer'

Miasmal - Cursed Redeemer (2014)

Century Media Records

Review by Trevor Proctor

Sweden’s Miasmal are about to unleash their second album Cursed Redeemer which is due to be released on May 13th in North America via Century Media Records; the album was recorded in less than a week by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman (Opeth and At the Gates) and features eight tracks of rocking death metal across a fast paced thirty seven minutes. 

Hailing from Gothenberg Miasmal are part of a group of bands who are currently integral parts in the current revival and rejuvenation of death metal – just as the their predecessors did in the late eighties/early nineties bands like Miasmal, Morbus Chron and Tribulation are pioneering creative forces gaining both larger audiences and much bigger surges in popularity than ever before. It’s been four long years since Miasmal released their self-titled debut via Dark Descent Records so anticipation and expectation around the release are significant to say the least.

Whilst recording took less than a week Cursed Redeemer was written over a six month period before the band entered Fredman’s studio; a studio familiar to vocalist/guitarist Pontus as he’s previously recorded there with his other bands Agrimonia and Martyrdod – crust, d-beat groups, Miasmal’s drummer Bjorn is also a member of Agrimonia.

Whilst Morbus Chron and Tribulation released albums last year which were quite dissimilar to their previous output (both excellent albums worth checking out if you haven’t already done so) Miasmal opted to stick closer to the sound of their self-titled debut album yet with Cursed Redeemer they have managed to achieve a sound that’s fresh, exciting and authentic whilst avoiding the pit of retro act that many other acts have unfortunately fallen into.

Miasmal don’t dick about, the album’s title track kicks off and instantly throws the listener into Miasmal’s balls to the wall, death infused rock n roll sound - there’s no intro, no gimmicks, no pretention; just up-front, flat out death metal with Miasmal’s own twist on the sub-genre. It’s easy to spot Pontus’ other bands influences as there’s plenty of crust punk here and there that add to the overall sound. At times there are some similarities in sound with Wolverine Blues era Entombed but I mean this as the highest of compliments; Miasmal’s music may give an occasional backwards glance to its roots but the sound on Cursed Redeemer belongs to no one but Miasmal – a thoroughly enjoyable high-octane brand of punk and crust infused rocking death metal. 

From beginning to end this is a very solid, enjoyable and addictive album. Cursed Redeemer is Miasmal’s debut album release for Century Media and deserves to garner them a much wider worldwide audience -whilst some may claim Miasmal don’t bring anything new to the table I totally disagree and also feel they certainly don’t need to bring anything new as their sound is original and authentic – Cursed Redeemer delivers salvo after salvo of crusty, punk-infused rocking death metal that has its own sound, a very,very solid release from another top Swedish group that we will hopefully hear a lot more from in the future.

Tracklist:

1. Cursed Redeemer 

2. Call of the Revenant

3. Whisky Train 

4. Excelsior 

5. A Veiled Remembrance

6. Until the Last 

7. Frozen In Time 

8. 2013 

Cursed Redeemer is available now from Century Media.