BOOKS
Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth: a review
/ Adam Ganderson
10.29.08
Swedish Death Metal
by Daniel Ekeroth
Bazillion Points Books
$34 U.S.
October is the most politically incorrect month. For kids it’s about candy and ghost stories. For grown ups, it’s about trying to get women to dress like naughty kittens and French maid hookers. It is the sinister howl of autumn wind, the mental patient in a white mask next to the hedges, and burning leaves on the outskirts of town. October is as much a celebration of decay as it is about raising the specter of youthful rebellion: pumpkins smashing, eggs flying at cop cars, and middle aged conservative suburbanites pulling toilet paper out of trees. And though Halloween is reportedly a relatively new concept for Sweden, nearly everything that makes the month of October great, musically speaking, is celebrated in Daniel Ekeroth’s superb new volume: Swedish Death Metal.
Published this year for US consumption by author Ian Christe’s Brooklyn based company Bazillion Points, Swedish Death Metal is an in-depth history and assessment of one of the world's most fertile death metal breeding grounds. It is also not a book for beginners.
Throughout the 1980’s a convergence of musical elements had amassed into the perfect storm of death metal. The term, coined by Jeff Becerra of California thrashers Possessed, defined a music that was essentially a combination of the speed of punk rock, a faster version of the D-beat of crust punk bands like Discharge (the blast beat), and lyrical content first laid out in the early 80s’ through the horror/occult imagery of Britain’s Venom. By the 90s’ the genre had grown especially knotted roots in two places: Florida and Sweden. Yet despite the focus on Ekeroth's Swedish home region, certain comparisons and recognition of influence are unavoidable in regards to US bands like Morbid Angel, Cynic, and Deicide, among others. Regardless of location, death metal, in terms of content and melodic accessibility, raised the rock n’ roll controversy bar about five hundred notches above anything that had come before.
by Daniel Ekeroth
Bazillion Points Books
$34 U.S.
October is the most politically incorrect month. For kids it’s about candy and ghost stories. For grown ups, it’s about trying to get women to dress like naughty kittens and French maid hookers. It is the sinister howl of autumn wind, the mental patient in a white mask next to the hedges, and burning leaves on the outskirts of town. October is as much a celebration of decay as it is about raising the specter of youthful rebellion: pumpkins smashing, eggs flying at cop cars, and middle aged conservative suburbanites pulling toilet paper out of trees. And though Halloween is reportedly a relatively new concept for Sweden, nearly everything that makes the month of October great, musically speaking, is celebrated in Daniel Ekeroth’s superb new volume: Swedish Death Metal.
Published this year for US consumption by author Ian Christe’s Brooklyn based company Bazillion Points, Swedish Death Metal is an in-depth history and assessment of one of the world's most fertile death metal breeding grounds. It is also not a book for beginners.
Throughout the 1980’s a convergence of musical elements had amassed into the perfect storm of death metal. The term, coined by Jeff Becerra of California thrashers Possessed, defined a music that was essentially a combination of the speed of punk rock, a faster version of the D-beat of crust punk bands like Discharge (the blast beat), and lyrical content first laid out in the early 80s’ through the horror/occult imagery of Britain’s Venom. By the 90s’ the genre had grown especially knotted roots in two places: Florida and Sweden. Yet despite the focus on Ekeroth's Swedish home region, certain comparisons and recognition of influence are unavoidable in regards to US bands like Morbid Angel, Cynic, and Deicide, among others. Regardless of location, death metal, in terms of content and melodic accessibility, raised the rock n’ roll controversy bar about five hundred notches above anything that had come before.