9) Witherscape – The Inheritance
Before death metal even had a shape, rules of conformity within the genre, there were two bands that seemed to transcend anything that was happening in heavy metal. They were Death and Edge of Sanity, led respectively by two visionaries, Chuck Schuldiner and Dan Swanö. Unfortunately we lost Chuck some time ago, but Swanö has been with us for the duration, hardly ever in the spotlight, but contributing his musical brilliance to countless projects, either as a vocalist, guitarist, or sound engineer. His latest being this remarkable album.
Witherscape could easily be mistaken for a full progressive death metal quartet with years of experience under their belt, but this is a collaboration of two people covering all instrumental duties, Dan Swanö and Ragnar Widerberg. The chemistry between these two musicians is unmistakable. Each track is full of catchy guitar leads, vocal hooks, interesting rhythms, even some really great, restrained synth work. Obviously I'm biased because this is Swanö and his voice sounds just as good as it did twenty years ago alternating seamlessly between passionate croons and guttural growling, so I could be overlooking some flaws, but I really don't see any. If you dig Edge of Sanity and miss the times when death metal was thoughtful and not hopelessly focused on violence and misogyny then this is an essential album.
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