Two years ago I reviewed the split offering between Swedish/Finnish grinders Afgrund and Swedish death grinders Relevant Few.  Afgrund unleashed 9 tracks of Nasum-worshiping grindcore, while Relevant Few blasted out 7 tracks of Napalm Death-styled death grind.  Both bands really impressed me and I was eager to hear more from both bands.  Luckily, Poland’s Lifestage Productions sent me a promo of Afgrund’s debut full length offering, Svarta Dagar, and, although it took me a while to get to, I do have to admit I’m fucking impressed by what I’m hearing!

Like the aforementioned material on the split with Relevant Few, Afgrund continue their relentless Nasum-styled grinding on Svarta Dagar, unleashing 15 tracks spread out over 36 minutes.  The album contains a thick rumbling bass, distorted shredding riffs, Anders Jakobson (Nasum)-styled choppy drum beats and snarled shrieks.  Even Nasum couldn’t write another album that compared to the infectious catchiness and shredding grind of Human 2.0, but Afgrund were able to do just that.

The music on Svarta Dagar is up-tempo, with an infectious grind-rock rhythm that’s extremely similar to Nasum’s godly Human 2.0.  The songs are relatively short blasts of aggression and melody, with the majority of the tracks clocking in at roughly 1-2 minutes, with only the final two tracks going beyond the three minute mark, although technically the last track, a “hidden track” only contains music in the final 20-30 seconds or so.

The split with Relevant Few was a pleasant surprise and got me curious about Afgrund, but their debut album, Svarta Dagar has turned me into an instant fan.  If you were a big Nasum fan and were saddened by the loss of Mieszko Talarczyk and his musical outputs, then you’re going to rush out and pick up Svarta Dagar immediately.  This material sounds exactly like a follow-up to Human 2.0 and is a fun and catchy grind album.  The only downside is Afgrund are literally just playing Nasum’s material without really contributing anything new or unique.  The upside to that is they do such a great job of sounding like Nasum that I find myself not caring that they’re a Nasum clone and just thoroughly enjoy the music.

It seems I wasn’t the only one hugely impressed by Afgrund’s material, as Willowtip eagerly offered them a contract and recently released the band’s sophomore full length offering, Vid Helvetets Grindar, a few weeks ago.  I’m definitely eager to check that out and see how it compares!  On a related note, Svarta Dagar was re-issued last year by Emetic Records, remixed (by drummer Panu Posti) and remastered (by Scott Hull) and contains all nine of their tracks from the split with Relevant Few, not sure why they remixed ore remastered it, since it sounded perfect the first time, but they did it anyway.

Review byTeufel