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ROGGA JOHANSSON
Inside The Otherwhere

Iron, Blood And Death Corporation (2022)
Rating: 7/10

After a subtle introduction Rogga Johansson, one of the busiest musicians in metal, announces his third studio album, Inside The Otherwhere. I’m unsure as to whether Johansson really needs to be a solo artist when one considers what else he has going on, but with his first solo album since 2019’s Entrance To The Otherwhere the master craftsman engages once again with a flurry of Swedish death metal aesthetics that successfully combine other extreme elements too.

To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of Rogga’s growl – which has a standard contemporary gruffness – but musically this is a solid opus featuring an array of doom-tinged death metal riffs and nuances.

‘Another World Darkly’ oozes in the manner of early Paradise Lost, almost melancholic in its mid-tempo groove. I’m strangely uplifted by the track, probably not its intention, but the leads are rather nifty in their forlorn swirls. Meanwhile, ‘The Creepers Are Coming’ follows a more modern yet archetypal Swedish groove with that gnashing riffage and thudding drum, but again there are those more despondent melodies contained herein which give the track an almost doomy feel.

I do like the subtleties the album offers. Johansson is clearly a talented guy and does like his variations within the death metal framework as evidenced on the colder sweeps of ‘The Otherwhere Wants You’, a decidedly Gothic trundle if ever there was one. In fact, I’m imagining a deathlier version of Fields Of The Nephilim throughout! ‘Ends And Beginnings’ has a harsher façade, although keeps the consistent mid-tempo sweep but provides extra chills in its phrasing.

Call this “melo-death” if you will via, say, At The Gates at times, but with extra groove and rainy harmony.

Neil Arnold

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