Wombbath – Agma
Release Date: 31st December 2021
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Swedish Death Metal.
FFO: Dismember, Entombed, Cannibal Corpse.
Review By: The Wayfaerer
Wombbath have been quietly making a name for themselves in today’s death metal scene. The brainchild of guitarist Håkan Stuvemark, the band originally formed during the early 90’s Swedish death metal boom but disappeared shortly afterwards. Stuvemark revived the band in 2014, bringing Jonny Pettersson along for vocal and guitar duties. Fast forwards to 2021, and Wombbath now looks stronger than ever with Jon Rudin on drum duty, Matt Davidson on bass, and second guitarist Thomas von Wachenfeldt to complete the quintet. The band has certainly been busy these past several years, putting out four full-length albums in less than three years, the latest of which dropping at the tail-end of 2021, the crushing Agma.
Agma starts off strong with The Law of Everything, slamming you in the face with everything this album has in store for you, complete balls-to-the-wall brutality. Pettersson takes his vocal cues from Lars-Göran Petrov, a fantastic growl to emulate and has become a staple of the Swedish Death Metal community. The guitar work is the second major staple of the album; it’s loud, in-your-face, and chuggy as all hell. I would liken it to being suffocated under a wall of rotting corpses that are all screaming at you. Rudin’s drumming is loud and clear, keeping the pace with traditional death metal beats while occasionally delving into thrash territory. But it’s on Blindly They Follow where Rudin’s skills are truly appreciated, and I must say, if nothing else, you should listen to this album for the drum work. It’s honestly superb. Davidson’s bass, while not the most notable, does lay a crushing foundation that everything lays on quite neatly. Not the best, but certainly not an afterthought.
While Agma’s most prominent influence was most definitely Entombed, there is also a nice blend of Cannibal Corpse spliced in for good measure, such as on A World of Destruction, The Seventh Seal, and Inquisition Reborn. My personal favorite track has to be The Age of Death, a hauntingly beautiful track where von Wachenfeldt breaks out his violin and opens the track on an epic high. Of course, not everything on this album is perfect, most notably the song count. While 16 songs is more than enough to satisfy any Wommbath fan, towards the latter half of the album, it really does start to drag, with the songs starting to blend together after a while. Hell, the openings for Divine Pain and Scorned Existence sound nearly identical. I’m pretty sure the band could have cut three or four songs and the album would have been much tighter and wouldn’t overstay its welcome. Despite these shortcomings, Agma is another solid Swedish Death Metal album. If that’s your thing, then Agma should make a great addition to your collection.
(4 / 5)
