Like night follows day there are some certainties that are undeniable and Dismembers place in Death Metal hall of fame is one such certainty. The band helped create and define much of the early European Death Metal movement and have remained at the top of their game for the past decade and a half. However like so many that have scaled the heights of greatness it just means the fall is that much greater and you only have to look at Celtic Frost’s “Cold Lake” as proof positive (ouch!!!) of how the mighty can fall. With their two most recent albums being hailed as some of their best since 1991 “Like An Ever Flowing Stream” what would the boys from Stockholm be able to produce this time around?

In the loss of founding member Fred Estby Dismember certainly lost one of their big gun song writers, but any concerns as to whether the band could not sustain their high song writing standards appear unfounded. Such songs as “Europa Burns” have the trade mark sound we have come to expect of any Dismember release but also a distinct NWOBM about it, more specifically a Judas Priest vibe about it. Which to anyone familiar with the band will know has been bubbling under the surface threatening to emerge for a number of years, but never before have Dismember meshed so seamlessly the old and the new(er) influences to create a new, almost groove driven aspect to the crushing riffs of old.

“Dismember” is without question Death Metal album to its core and in a genre were grunt and growl are common place distinction from those around you is somewhat of a rare commodity. So to have achieved a ‘sound’ that is totally associated with you is testimony to what Dismember have achieved over the years. Sure to appeal to the die hards who yearn for the “Skin Her Alive” days of old but take the trouble to scratch the surface and “Dismember” has a great deal more to offer than your traditional Death Metal fodder.