HARDWARES

Four new originals swellegantly packaged in a rounded-corner jewel case and a similarly die-cut oversleeve, Unblessing The Purity is a skull-frying collection featuring relentless, hollow-tipped production that is all fat bass and driller killer mids, plus a groovy death metal clinic from Martin “Axe” Axenrot who proves to be the main reason to dig in. Mikael Akerfeldt is back on vocals and does a chummy old school job, but yeah, these mid-‘90s riffs, coupled with the surging sound and Axenrot’s sixth sense death perfection, make for a canny combination of death ‘n’ roll with way trickier licks and breaks and bar endings than noticeable through beer. It’s pure death of sort of one volume and beaker level, but any blasting is marbled in and not part of any of the four songs’ verses. Love the stunned stomp of closer ‘Mouth Of Empty Praise’ the best, but really, not a duffer in the bunch, lots of changes built in seamlessly to keep things interesting. My 9 grade is high, I know, but go ahead and adjust for the relative ease of making an unassailable and airtight case when you only have to chin up on quality for 15 minutes, right?