Paganizer are a Swedish death metal band and this is their eleventh album.
Paganizer are a very well-respected band with an imposing body of work, (we’ve covered On the Outskirts of Hades and Land of Weeping Souls in the past). Brought to us by the legendary Rogga Johansson, (Echelon, Megascavenger, The Grotesquery, Those Who Bring the Torture, Just Before Dawn, Ursinne, and many more!), The Tower of the Morbid is 38 minutes of Grade A Swedish death metal ready to destroy.
Standing tall as a weighty exemplar of everything that’s right with the classic Swedish sound, this record has everything you’d expect it to have. If you’re at all familiar with the old-school Swedish style then this record has it in spades; buzzsaw guitars, sledgehammer grooves, brutal hooks, macabre melodies, and catchy songs.
The music is crushing and effective. These songs, impressive on first listen, keep demanding repeated spins to the point where all of a sudden The Tower of the Morbid is just part of your life, periodically blasted out at Hellishly loud volumes. It’s resolutely uncompromising in its adherence to the core tenets of the style, and doubles down on this with the type of songwriting approach that you would hope a record like this would have. It’s very moreish.
Having said all of that, however, this isn’t completely rooted in the past. The production, perfect for the music, is definitely a modern one, while some of the melodies are more from the USDM school in places. This is a record that’s more about brutality than melody though, (despite having both), and the songs on this release will smash your skull in as soon as look at you.
The Tower of the Morbid is a monster, and like all monsters, demands to be unleashed. Listen to Paganizer.
