Sweden seems to be filled with skilled bands of the more extreme side of metal these days. Chastisement, although having been in existence for almost ten years, made the Alleviation Of Pain album already in 2001, but couldn’t get a record deal till the end of 2003 with the now-defunct Rage Of Achilles.

Anyone who thinks now that being a death metal-band from Sweden translates into an automatic In Flames/Dark Tranquility copycat is sadly mistaken here. Chastisement takes most of its influences from very old school roots, mainly the legends like Morbid Angel and Death. The band also throw in good doses of thrash and classic heavy metal-like leads and even acoustic guitars every here and there, forming a very potent mix. Singer Johan Klitkous growls are very much a like a bass-heavy version Chuck Schuldiners throat-mastery, which sound very good with the brutal, grinding riffs that the guitar tandem spews out. The thigh-muscles of drummer Fjellström seem to also be made of concrete, judging by the speeds the man achieves on the bass drums and with the pounding, precise thrash beats.

The opening instrumental Another Pace and Destructutorial serve some extremely fast and heavy bunches of melody, with especially the latter holding great debt to the rhythmic assaults of Slayer. Soul Evasion dishes out some slower death metal-murder and good tempo changes. The Journey is a more mournful instrumental with very melodic lead patterns that give a nice chance to catch ones breath before Tsavo - The Land Of Slaughter starts to hand out death (metal) sentences with a great mid-tempo groove. Very Priest-like (Painkiller, anyone?) riffs open up the most classic metal-elemented song Time Zone Zero, which is also my personal favourite off the record. The very stylish and melodic solo would probably even make Glenn Tipton smile if questioned on the fact. The next two tracks, Disowned and Worlds Beyond are the mediocre filler songs here that mash death metal and classic metal riffs together pretty well but are just not that memorable. The beautiful acoustic-based instrumental Joie De Vivre takes the album back on track with its enchanting, delicate melodies and leads. I´d definitely like to see more death metal bands having the guts to include more gentle songs like this on an album. An excellent instrumental, much in the vain of In Flames´ Pallar Anders Visa and Metallicas To Live Is To Die. The two-minute follower Redeemer then again is pure black metal with the devastating blast beats and circular saw-like riffs. The most brutal song here and could even turn some hard core-penguin-faced spike-collars to dig this band. A New Dawn finishes the album with perhaps the most modern-vibed riffs in here, but also equipped with nice Maiden-styled solos. A solid finish to a great album that leaves nothing to be desired for in the production part, stellar all the way sound-wise.

Chastisement is a band that excellently mixes many styles of metal together from the most brutal to the most touching. I definitely hope that the current dismantlement that Rage Of Achilles records is having concerning new releases doesn’t affect the future of Chastisement too hard. Because this is a band that has the abilities to grow to great heights. While we await, lets visit the pits of The Land Of Slaughter once more!