Death/grind has always been a real love or hate relationship for myself. Some of it I find to be the best music out there when the wanting for vicious death arises and the usual culprits I turn to are old school masters like Exhumed and Blood, or the new-schoolers who get better and better, Landmine Marathon. Now, Coldworker isn't exactly a full on death/grind act, but there is enough influence from both subgenres to call them as such, and coming from the home of some of the best death metal bands as well as tremendous grind acts like Nasum and Regurgitate, these guys have some mighty big shoes to fill. In case you didn't guess, these guys are indeed from Sweden which is home to some kind of birthing device that spews out great band after great band, but is Coldworker one of those bands?
After listening to "The Doomsayer's Call," I would say that they're good enough. This album pretty much sums up what I said earlier about that whole love/hate relationship. I love some of the stuff on here and I hate some of it. Let's start with the good though. The best part about these guys are definitely their talent for conjuring up some brilliant midpaced riffs that absolutely reek of grind influence. The riffs found in songs like "The Reprobate" and "The Glass Envelope" are agony for the listener's neck, but great for their corrupted soul all the same. Coldworker also excels at weaving in some nice tremolo sections with the midpaced riffs like on the intro to "Murderous" as well as the rager "Pessimist."
The vocals on "The Doomsayer's Call" are quite good, as they don't sound very much like a death metal vocalist from Sweden would sound, but they command the frenzy of brutality throughout the album well enough. The bass is audible as it thumps along heavily, and other than the very cool moment early on in the song "Murderous," I'm rather indifferent towards anything that the bass is doing. The drumming is very precise and there's no question that the man behind the kit is skilled as he blasts away and adds some terrific fills at times.
Now, for the bad. This album was flat out boring and monotonous at points and I was almost tempted to skip to the next song on quite a few occasions, but luckily there's at least one decent enough riff or moment on each song (except for the intro track "A New Era," I found that one to be entirely skippable). The main problem was the repetitive blasting and tremolo bursts that seemed to be extremely bland and uninspired. It was like the band needed something random and fast in the background until they came to a riff worth listening to.
Luckily, the good outweighed the bad on "The Doomsayer's Call," an album that could have been fantastic rather than just good. Fans of Exhumed, Nasum, Carcass, etc, should have no problems with this record as it could sustain for a good few listens and it shows some level of potential to be a grower that sneaks it's way into a regular rotation.
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Highlights
"The Reprobate"
"Pessimist"
"Vacuum Fields"
Final Rating
4/5 or 80%.