Nihilist – Nihilist (1987 – 1989) [Threeman Recordings 2005]



Before there was Entombed, Nihilist ruled the Swedish death metal scene and was a big part of creating what should become the trademark sound of the early death metal bands from Sweden. It is no secret that Nihilist after 3 demos and the departure of bassist Johnny Hedlund, who went on to form Unleashed, turned into Entombed with the core of Nihilist founder and drummer/guitarist Nicke Andersson, guitarist Alex Hellid, vocalist Lars Göran Petrov and guitarist Ulf Cederlund.

On this release we get the 4 demos released under the Nihilist moniker and the one and only Entombed demo, that got them signed to Earache and started, so far 20 years of dominance of the Swedish metal scene. Personally I dig releases as this, as I was around 9-10 years when the demos were released and had no idea of what death metal was back then, so it's nice to get an official release with all the golden tapes, nothing beats history.

It is awesome to hear the development from the early beginning on the 'Premature Autopsy' demo to the Entombed demo 'But Life Goes On' to the first Entombed album 'Left Hand Path', which includes 7 tracks that can be heard on the demos, in their initial form. Though from the start the band have the buzz saw and very heavy guitars, the haunted growl from L.G. And the laid back, but straight in your face drumming from Nicke.

This is a sure purchase for all into Swedish death metal, Nihilist might be one of the most legendary and influential bands, never to have released anything but demos. And Entombed, don't even get me started there, we all know the influence they have had on Swedish death metal to the death n' roll bastard they later on created and rocks on with. This release contains a big piece of the Swedish death metal history and that should be heard at least twice, a month!

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Distributed in Denmark and kindly supplied by Target Distribution