KINGDOMS OF GREED

I am all for variations on an album. But Unmoored is taking the piss here.

This is the second album from Unmoored and a change in direction from their debut album. Gone is the Slipknot and Korn connotations. In comes brutal and sometimes epic blackened death metal. Death metal in the typical downtuned Swedish style. The style Nihilist/Entombed and Dismember pioneered. That is 3/4 of the album. Then we get treated to some folky doom metal and some house music towards the end of this album. Type of music on the opposite end of the spectrum from the death metal this album started with. Is Unmoored playing a joke on us or not ? Disjointing an album like this is not a clever move at all.

The quality of the death metal is good. The quality of the other stuff is pretty bad. Hence, this is not an album I would recommend. The only good thing here is the Dan Seagrave artwork. And that's it.

2 stars

"Kingdoms of Greed" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish metal act Unmoored. The album was released through Pulverised Records in 2000. It´s the successor to "Cimmerian" from 1999 and features a couple of lineup changes since the predecessor as drummer Niclas Wahlén has been replaced by Jocke Pettersson and guitarist Rickard Larsson has left too. The remaining members from "Cimmerian (1999)" are Torbjörn Öhrling (bass) and Christian Älvestam (vocals, guitars). Älvestam would of course go on to become very prolific on the Swedish metal scene with his involvement in artists like Scar Symmetry, Torchbearer and Miseration (among others).

Stylistically the listener is treated to death metal of the more melodic kind. It´s not melodeath, but imagine how a less interesting version of Edge of Sanity would sound like (the tracks not written by Dan Swanö). It´s quite an eclectic release, and while the basis of the band´s sound is death metal oriented, the music also features black metal elements ("Torchbearer" is almost full-blown black metal), and elements of goth/melodic metal. The vocals are predominantly high pitched snarling screaming (black metal type vocals), but the music also features death metal growling and some clean vocals. The material are decent but seldom anything beyond that, and it´s a bit of a shame, as there are obviously skills enough to create something a bit more interesting.

"Kingdoms of Greed" features a decent sounding production, but again it´s not really the best sounding production job, and it doesn´t help already relatively standard quality material to shine. Unmoored are often given the progressive death metal label, but to my ears "Kingdoms of Greed" doesn´t feature anything progressive. The song structures are relatively standard for the genre, and it´s not like the material are loaded with innovative or creative ideas either. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)