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UNLEASHED
Fire Upon Your Lands

Napalm (2025)
Rating: 7/10

The voracious Vikings are back, even if my love affair for the Swedes fizzled some time ago. Unleashed has become the death metal version of Manowar (check out the track ‘To My Only Son’ for evidence) by pouring tankard of heroic tales which don’t always sit comfortably with yours truly. Even so, Unleashed are true veterans of the void, causing enough rumbles to disturb a plethora of undersea titans.

The most impressive thing about this latest album, the bands 15th, is the axe work. To an extent there’s a strong traditional metal element to the work of Tomas Måsgard and Fredrik Folkare, immediately evident on ravenous opener ‘Left For Dead’. It’s a quality that somewhat separates Unleashed from the clan of death metal cannibals. In fact, it leaves me questioning as to whether the Stockholm mob is still death metal at all. Occasionally the foursome will veer into that quintessentially Swedish groove, but there’s an abundance of variety flashed by the axe melodies.

The title track is very groove based, the opening slam of the riffs plucked from the mid-90s as the chimes of Johnny Hedlund’s bass run in tumultuous tandem with the drums of Anders Schultz. Hedlund has one of the more decipherable vocal snaps. His chops always sound angry and commanding and he’s extremely gnarly on the trudging grind of ‘Hold Your Hammers High!’, even if there’s a corniness on the subject matter.

Admittedly there are a few moments which can’t help but drip with cheese as the lyrics become borderline power metal. ‘To My Only Son’ hits hard enough musically where there’s an outburst of thrashiness to its approach, but I can do without the lyrics. In fact, many of the words feverishly barked throughout this record make me wince. However, I’ve many a time looked beyond the veil of battle torn tales to appreciate the music, and that’s where Unleashed delivers most. ‘War Comes Again’ is streaked with a blackened vim, spiteful and cold in its speedy embrace. Meanwhile, ‘Hail To The Varangians!’ again sees the combo channel a thrash-death dynamic.

Fire Upon Your Lands is certainly a controlled yet feverish opus, even with some of the mid-tempo arrangements (‘Unknown Flag’), much of which is conniving and snaking in its structure (‘Loyal To The End’) and exposes the band as being far more technical than given credit for. Okay, so I’ve not been all too loyal to the discography of Unleashed, but it’s good to be able to dip back in and enjoy this latest effort.

Neil Arnold

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