Scent of the Buried

Beautiful friction

dB Rating: 8/10

Release Date: April 1st, 2016
Label: Dark Descent Records

The last time I read, “Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studio,” Grave were coming off an eight-year hiatus. And that was ages ago. Now, Interment have the balls to visit Mr. Skogsberg for their second full-length, Scent of the Buried. Veterans to Interment (and the many bands they’re similar to) will immediately recognize the Swedes’ buzzsaw guitars—their distorted mass heavier than heavy—the crawling Dismember-esque riffs, and the crushing production that defined the “Stockholm Sound.” And to OSDM nerds, it sounds awesome—like a flashback to ’91, when death metal of Swedish origin offered something different to the sounds coming out of Florida and the U.K.

To be fair, Scent of the Buried doesn’t offer much outside of what we’ve all heard before. Tracks like “Death and Decay,” “Chalice of Death” and “Unholy Upheaval” could have originated on (or from sessions for) Dark Recollections, Like an Everflowing Stream or Into the Grave. To that end, as much as Interment assault, attack and abrade, there won’t be excitable over-the-phone plays to friends or rabid emails to the editorial desk about interview coverage.

Scent of the Buried, however, manages to impress. It’s primal at its core. And the lack of refinement has its many charms. It’s difficult to ignore the raw near-punk power of “Sinister Incantation” and “Skull Crushing Carnage,” especially with frontman Johan Jansson serving up brutally coarse (yet remarkably emotive) overtures to death, decay and other nastiness like he owns the place. Interment are nothing more than a slab of rotting meat, and, for the duration of Scent of the Buried, that’s certainly enough to sate even the hungriest old-schooler.

—Chris Dick
Review originally printed in the April 2016 issue.