Band : Nasum

Album title : Doombringer

Label : Relapse

Distributor : Rough Trade

Release date : 10/03/2008

Release : Digipak enhanced CD

Nasum , the epitomy of Grind Metal, thé act from Sweden which would re-write Grind Metal history and have all the previous Grind acts, big or small, turn white in the faces with envy because of the effective way in which the band's members could mix ultra-violence with melody and sound quality to create instant hit songs within the genre. Already at the peak in the genre, the Swedes were expanding their fanbase beyond the confines of their genre with each appearance done at festivals (where usually a broader audience is available), and frankly there was no stopping the band from stepping into the major leagues! After a co-headlining Japanese tour with Napalm Death in early 2004, the band returned home to Sweden to find they won national awards for their recently released album Helvete ("Best Rock/ Metal Album" at the P3 Guld and "Best Metal/ Punk Album" at Manifest Award ). For the involved band members, a something they hadn't dared dream about.

A dream which tragically ended on December 26, 2004. Multi-talented frontman Mieszko Talarczyk (he'd also gained a well-deserved reputation as recording engineer & producer) was enjoying a well-deserved vacation in Thailand with his girlfriend for his 30 th anniversary, when he (and so many others) became a victim of the tsunami which struck that part of the world. His body was only to be found two months later, but in the meantime the other members of Nasum had already come to terms with the inevitable outcome of things, and had decided to end the band. At the following P3 Guld awards celebration, the remaining members attended as nominees only (again for "Best Metal Album", this time for their last studio outing Shift ), and had the hostess read a statement of theirs, ending in a wish to celebrate all victims, survivors and heroes from the tsunami. A well-deserved thunderous applause ensued!

I'm not gonna go too deeply into the band's history, but will give you a short oversight and discography. Formation 1992 by guitarist Anders Jakobson and singer/ drummer Rickard Alrikkson ; joined in Spring 1993 by Mieszko . After sharing space on 7-inch EPs with others in split releases (one with Agathocles , another with Psycho , a 4-way split with Regurgitation , Clotted Symmetric Sexual Organ , and Vivisection , and finally also one with Abstain ), they finally released the 18-track EP Industrislaven on their own, issued by Powerslaughter in 1995. By June of 1997 Mieszko had bougth the former Unisound equipment (the studio where they recorded before) and opened his own studio Soundlab . The band recorded 16 songs (released as their follow-up "solo" EP World In Turmoil ) plus a cover of Discharge 's "Vision Of War" for an international Grindcore/ Power Violence compilation released through Finnish label Tylet Levyt , and a tape of those sessions eventually made it to the offices of Relapse . The world-over renowned and respected label immediately offered the band a full album deal, and Nasum accepted. In less than two months, they recorded a total of 42 tracks, 38 of which were to compose the track-list of the 1999 Inhale/ Exhale album...a record which took lovers of extreme music by storm in a short-of-breath shock state of being. Gathering rave reviews from media all over the globe, it became an instant classic, and is still being used as a reference in the genre. Shortly after the release, the band was invited on the Relapse Contamination Tour (joining label mates Exhumed , Morgion , Soylent Green and Today Is The Day ), delivering crushing show upon show which instantly gained them a flock of fans who were eagerly looking out for the band's next recordings.

Followed 2000's Human 2.0 , which saw a slight elongation of the tracks to include "only" 25 blisteringly heavy songs, and the band's invitation to some of Europe's prestigious festival sites, including Germany's Fuck The Commerce III (where they headlined), and the classic Hultsfred Festival in Sweden. Next album took some time to arrive ( Mieszko 's activities in the studio had expanded by then), but when Helvete h it the shops it also met with lauding appraise from both press and long-time fans. Gigging for the album all over Sweden and the rest of Europe, the band had just welcomed new members Urban Skytt (of Regurgitate ) on second guitar and Jon " Elle " Lindqvist ( Sayyadina ) before heading out to Japan with Napalm Death ...which fulfills the circle of the story...or almóst, because...following their return from Japan the band set to work on their follow-up album Shift, which was released worldwide on October 11 th.

In Nov. 2005 Relapse released Grand Finale , a limited edition 2-CD collection of every single piece of non-album material in the band's repertoire (by the way, even after their signing to Relapse the Swedes continued to release split-EPs – one with Asterisk *, another with Skitsystem – and contribute to compilations – one a tribute to Carcass , another a tribute to Discharge , 3 unreleased tracks on the Polar Grinder – A Swedish Grindcore Compilation album, and a contribution to the 4-disc 5"EP split release Better Off Dead which also featured Fuck On The Beach , Groinchurn , More Noise For Life , and Quill ). Gathered by Nasum 's Jakobson , the release contained a staggering 152 songs in a custom hardbound digipak complete with lyrics for every track, extensive liner notes, career spanning pictures and flyers, and album discography, spread over an 80-page booklet. A fitting and more-than-deserved tribute to a band which remains un-equalled in their genre.

While getting back to the band's archives, Jacobson unearthed a live tape culled from a gig on that Japanese tour with Napalm Death in 2004. Containing "only" 16 tracks, the album/ set only lasts a good 23 ½ minutes, but they are 23 ½ minutes spent in complete awe for what's delivered. The majority of the songs evidently comes from their first three full-lengths ( "The Masqued Face" , "This Is..." , and the title track off debut album Inhale/Exhale ; "Corrosion" , Masshypnosis" , "A Welcome Breeze Of Stinking Air" , "Fatal Stench" and "Den Svarta Fanan" off   Human 2.0 , "Doombringer" , "Just Another Hog" , "Scoop" , "Bullshit" , "Relics" , and "I Hate People" off the third), the band also brings two non-album tracks with the 41-second "Löpandebandsprincipen" and the somewhat longer (84 seconds) "The Idiot Parade" . Of course the sound ain't quíte like on the studio albums, but the musicians' play is technical enough to make this a thoroughly enjoyable short half hour! And this recording shows beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt why Nasum was considered the most important Grind band since Napalm Death !!!

Evidently, this jewel goes to join the entries in that "Best Albums Of 2008" list of mine! If Nasum still is to be discovered by you (whére have you been the last couple of years?), there's several pages on Myspace (the official Nasum page nasumband, and pages erected by fans: sapshit, nasumpolitigrind, and nasumhuman20) for you to find a total of 14 mp3-files containing the band's music. Oh yeah, before I forget: this release is to be issued in two forms. The first being a separate CD with additional media track containing the video clip for the Helvete track "Scoop" (recorded by Mitch Harris from Napalm Death )...the second a limited edition (only 1,000 copies made) vinyl picture disc shared with Napalm Death.

98/100

Tony.