Sweden, Sweden, Sweden...what is it with Sweden and Thrash metal? We have Darkane, we have The Haunted, we have At The Gates, and now, arised from the depths of hell; Fission a ‘new’ somewhat melodic Thrash band, formed back in 2002 whom now are set to annihilate the world with their debut Crater. The line-up got me somewhat excited about it so I couldn’t resist reviewing this one. It features mastermind Andreas Hedlund on vocals/keyboards/FX (Vintersorg, Otyg, Borknagar, Havayoth) and Vintersorg’s live session drummer Benny Hägglund on Guitars/Bass/Drums.

Now first of all, don’t let the term ‘Thrash’ fool you, this isn’t your regular 80s Bay Area thrash metal classic, it’s nowhere close to that. This album has got the typical Swedish thrash metal sound, and what might that be you ask? One word; MELODISM. While it’s Benny who’s founded this band, and being the main songwriter, it’s Andreas who keeps the Vintersorg, Borknagar feeling ‘alive’ in this project. The vocals vary from black metal growls to clean, warm, soft shivers. The guitars rage over from raw aggressive riffs, to atmospheric guitarwork where Benny truly shows his talent. And as I mentioned earlier, he also takes over the bass duties, we got ourselves another multi-musi in the metal comminuty. The drums are of top notch quality, note the changes, the fills from the typical Swedethrash style, to the more technical side such as from Vintersorg/Borknagar.

All in all, the guys have delivered a fantastic thrash debut for the average metal fan’s collection. Crater is set to be released through Austrian’s metal label Napalm Records on 23-08-2004

[This review was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]