Genre: Technical Death Metal

Label: United Guttural Records

Released: February 25th, 2011

Reviewer: Karim Tarek

Here comes one of the most anticipated 2011 albums for me. Under the name of Volturyon, a group of relentless Swedes continues melting Death Metal fans' faces with their quality Technical Death Metal tunes.

Formed in the year 2006, Volturyon is a native Swedish Death Metal act hailing from Borlange. They haven't had any lineup change since then except for having the vocalist Olle Ekman (Pergolos, Hartwig, Död, Lethal Attack, Deals Death) replace his peer, Tobias Netzell (In Mourning, October Tide) right before releasing their debut album "Blood Cure" in 2008.

Formerly known as Contortion, Volturyon have always been one of my top favorite bands, employing a matchless blend of all what is good in Death Metal: speed, aggression, technicality, brutality, groove, melodiousness, solos, AND BLAST BEATS! They are that kind of band that enthralled all my senses and gratified my hunger for pure Death Metal and made me fall in love with it from the first listen.

Volturyon hit this time with the follow-up to their 2008 debut album "Blood Cure" entitled "Coordinated Mutilation". I've been waiting for this one for almost a year now, expecting nothing less than a mind blowing Death Metal effort, a wish that was definitely fulfilled, and surpassed actually on "Coordinated Mutilation". Hats off to Volturyon for not failing me.

"Coordinated Mutilation" doesn't give you much time to get in the mood for it; it starts off with a face-ripping growl by Olle Ekman, who deserves a lot of kudos for his effort on this album performing two kinds of vocals: deep growls and shrieks, backed up with extremely badass riffage and followed up by blast beat lines that are tighter than your skin pores! I feel that I have to mention that the album's opening freaked me out two times; first time was the very first listen and I wasn't at all expecting an opening like that… and BOOM! I felt shocked for a while. Whereas, the second time I was already aware of that hell of a fierce opening, but to my bad luck, I wasn't aware of the fact that I was having the volume set on maximum, so, BOOM again. I was scared shitless actually, hehe.

The arrangements on this album are beyond amazing. I mean, there aren't much albums that are pretty flawless in terms of arrangements as "Coordinated Mutilation"; you can't feel anything other than you're dragged into an endless labyrinth of vintage modern Brutal/Technical Death Metal that I consider very ear-friendly; one riff pulls of the other very smoothly, one vocal verse gives way to the other in professionally exquisite way…etc. That's like the heaven of Death Metal! Perfect transitions, perfect commensuration, perfect performance, perfect songwriting, perfect everything; the album is stark godlike.

What makes "Coordinated Mutilation" a tad bit different from its predecessor is that it witnesses a trend to a gorier, less glossy, and more groovy approach by Volturyon. You can sense the inclination towards a very gory theme on "Coordinated Mutilation" even before you listen to it, simply by giving the cover art, which was made by Lukasz Jaszak (Blood Red Throne, Witchmaster), a look; the sadist chainsaw killer dismembering the body of his victim briefly speaks for it all, telling you that you are about to listen to some Swedish inexorable sick Death Metal. What I also should pay commandment on this album is the brilliant soloing; solos like the ones on "Ravaged" and "Abide Under Eminence" can simply make the day of a Death Metal enthusiast. Thanks to Andreas Olander, Johan Gustafsson, and Christian Netzell, it's so remarkable the congruity and accord between rhythm and lead guitar playing and the drumming. You can easily get several eargasms because of that actually on this album. Remember Deicide's song "Homage For Satan" when the solo was backed up with relentless blast beats? Well, you can get much of these moments on "Coordinated Mutilation". Bassist Stefan Eriksson is doing a great job as well keeping up with the insanity and sick savagery of the foreground music.

I can't actually name a single flaw or downside on "Coordinated Mutilation"; it's like starving for two days and ordering a sandwich, and instead, you get a combo meal, a dessert, a cup of coffee, and a pack of cigarettes. Can't complain about any single issue regarding "Coordinated Mutilation". It exemplifies what a perfect Death Metal record should sound like, according to my standards of course.

So, conclusion is: "Coordinated Mutilation" is one of the very best Technical Death Metal albums of all time, offering each and every thing a Death Metal enthusiast could possibly ask for, and is definitely not the kind of album that you'd listen to a couple of time then throw it to your musical limbo; it's an album that will engrave it's name in the history of Death Metal as one of the finest Technical Death Metal outcomes ever.

Highlights: Ravaged, Bloodsoaked Solution.

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[Click Here To Order "Coordinated Mutilation"]

Visit VOLTURYON on: Official Site | Myspace | Facebook | Youtube

[By: Karim Tarek]

If you’re somewhat into Swedish Death Metal and have been following up lately, I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with our guest. Christan Netzell is a renowned half-man-and-half-machine drummer around the Swedish Death Metal scene, he’s mostly known for his work with eminent Progressive Death Metallers In Mourning and Technical Death Metal beasts Volturyon.

Last year has been a busy one for him in terms of In Mourning, releasing the sophomore masterpiece “Monolith”, witnessing its large-scale success, and playing a lot of gigs in promotion of it across Europe, most prominent of which were probably the ones with Norwegian Black Metallers Keep Of Kalessin. However, here comes a new year with new ambitions, new goals, new prospects, and a new agenda; this year is more of a Volturyon year actually, getting ready to release the follow-up to the 2008 pukka Death Metal blast “Blood Cure” later this month, and having already confirmed a couple of gigs to take place in Ireland during May.

Christian Netzel kindly gave Metality some of his time to talk about the upcoming Volturyon album, the wide success of In Mourning, and a couple of other things.


Karim Tarek: First of all, we’re glad having you here. Thanks for this pleasant opportunity and welcome to Metality.

Christian Netzel: Thank you very much Karim, glad to be here!





Karim: Last year was quite a milestone for you and In Mourning having released “Monolith” via Pulverised Records. I sensed a lot of success and positive reception accompanying this album in particular. Tell us more about “Monolith” and how was the feedback you received regarding it.

Christian: As our debut album “Shrouded Divine” we’re so well received and got killer reviews all over it was kind of a scary feeling that appeared when the release date for “Monolith” was drawing near. We were really happy with the result of our new album but it’s always hard to know what to expect from people with a new release. I think in general ”Monolith” took more time for people to get into and understand. But now when the album has been out for about a year we are really happy with the response.





Karim: Right after releasing “Monolith” you started playing shows throughout the rest of the year, how did that come to action? And how did it affect In Mourning as a band and you, yourself, as a musician in terms of experience?

Christian: I think it's really important for a band to do as many shows as possible right after the release of a new album. That is definitely the best way to promote the band and their new material. I think that it was a really good thing for the band to do these shows and we really grew as a live act.

Karim: Before 2010 started, you surely had a plan in mind regarding achievements with In Mourning, now that 2010 has come to an end; to what extent are you content with what you achieved with In Mourning throughout 2010?

Christian: Yeah, I am really pleased with how last year turned out. I think that maybe it's the best year for In Mourning so far. Both with the touring part and as a band in general. Hopefully 2011 will be even better.





Karim: Leaving the past for a while and drifting onwards the future, masses of genuine Death Metallers are waiting on fire for the upcoming Volturyon record that had its title, “Coordinated Mutilation”, unrevealed lately. Personally, I’m a big fan of Volturyon, so I quickly rushed to the band’s myspace profile once I heard that samples from “Coordinated Mutilation” are up. After I carefully heard them, I came up to this: “Coordinated Mutilation” is going to be heavier, more brutal, more gory, rather less technical, less melodic, and less glossy than “Blood Cure”. Is this true or it’s just me? In other words, how is “Coordinated Mutilation” going to sound like and how variant it is from 2008’s “Blood Cure”?

Christian: Yeah, “Coordinated Mutilation” is going to be released the 25th of February and we are really excited about that. To me personally it’s a bit hard to compare these two albums. Mostly because the material on “Blood Cure” goes way back to the start of the band and all the material on “Coordinated Mutilation” was done in about a year just before the recording. We are always trying to blend both fast with more slow and groovier stuff in our songs to get the perfect mix of Death Metal. I think our new album feels more like a unit and that the songs fit together in a better way then on “Blood Cure”. I am really proud and happy with our debut album as well but on “Coordinated Mutilation” the new songs were made in a shorter period of time. Maybe the song structures are better on our new album as well.




Karim: The process of making “Coordinated Mutilation” witnessed the collaboration with Black Lounge and Abyss studio and Jonas Kjellgren (Carnal Forge, Scar Symmetry, Centinex) which is the same studio and producer as In Mourning and the previous Volturyon album, also Polish artist Lukasz Jaszak (Blood Red Throne, Witchmaster) did the artwork for the album; what do you say about these collaborations, and to what level do you think they enhance the album?

Christian: It felt really natural to continue with Jonas as we were really happy with his previous work. When you listen to your own product after it's completed there will always be these small details in both mixing and playing that you feel could have been done differently. I think that's the beauty of making music actually. But in general I think that “Coordinated Mutilation” received the production it deserves. Regarding the artwork I don’t think we could be happier with the result. We got in touch with Lukasz Jaszak through a friend of Andreas and we were really blown away when he gave us the previews for the album cover. And I think the end result speaks for it self.





Karim: “Coordinated Mutilation”’s release party is scheduled to take place in Klubb Helmer in your hometown, Falun, on February 25th. The event will be limited to 80 pre-sold tickets that include entrance to the party, a copy of the new album and food. There will also be a lottery held with several prizes, including a chance to win a ticket to a local festival “Rockstad Falun.” How excited are you about that and what do you predict “Coordinated Mutilation” will bring to Volturyon or how important is it going to be to the future of Volturyon?

Christian: This release gig is going to be very important for the band I think. We haven’t done any gigs for about a year and a half so we are really anxious to get up on stage again.




Karim: So far, Volturyon is confirmed to play a couple gigs in Ireland. Are there any prospective/potential gigs other than those of Ireland? Also, aren’t you thinking of a tour/mini-tour in promotion of “Coordinated Mutilation”?

Christian: We have four gigs confirmed in Ireland in May and we are working really hard to get another minitour later this year. It would be great to get out and promote the album as much as possible. Hopefully we will have something to announce soon.





Karim: You played a lot of high-profile gigs back then after the release of “Blood Cure”, how did it feel to share the stage with bands like At The Gates and Carcass?

Christian: That was on the Sweden Rock Festival 2008 and we didn't really share stage with At The Gates and Carcass. They played however at the same festival. We played in a smaller tent and didn't really know what to expect but it turned out to be one of the biggest crowds so far for Volturyon. Nearly 1500 people showed up and it was really sick.

Karim: The drumming style in In Mourning is so different from its counterpart in Volturyon due to difference between genres, like in Volturyon you use a lot of blast beats and fast, technical drumming, whereas in In Mourning you use more “mild” and diverse style of drumming to keep up with the progressive music. Tell us more about that and how do you manage to conjure up the “brutal mode” with Volturyon and the “progressive mode” with In Mourning.

Christian: I think it's a really great thing that the stiles of music for the bands are that different. I really get to use two different stiles of drumming and that suits me perfectly. In Volturyon it gets really intense most of the time with a lot of blastbeats and very little time to “rest”. When it comes to In Mourning there are a lot of more spaces to fill in the music so it's kind of the opposite in playing with Volturyon actually. I have no problem changing “mode” from brutal to progressive. It all comes very natural with the material for each band.





Karim: What music and bands have been listening a lot lately? Also, what kinds of music do you like besides Metal?

Christian: Oh, that changes from day to day actually. I try to see good music in every stile of music there is. Paradise Lost, Nile, Textures and Pink Floyd are some of the bands I’ve been listening to a lot lately.





Karim: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all our questions, I’m glad to have conducted this interview with you and Metality is proud to have had you here, and I have to say, I can’t wait for Volturyon’s album anymore, haha! The ball is on your pitch now, feel free to share any words with Metality readers.

Christian: Thank you very much, Karim! The long wait is soon to be over. Get ready to be Mutilated in Coordination!!!

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