No, this is not the most recent album from the Swedish/international super death metal band Just Before Dawn. In fact, this leftover from 2023 is not even a full-length, but a collection of songs from a single and two EPs, supplemented with three bonus tracks and now brought together for the first time on CD by the fine Raw Skull Recordz label. Just the fact that it’s on a silver disc justifies a purchase, but to be completely honest, I do not care what band mastermind Anders Biazzi releases. Even if he puts his nightly snoring on a record: what the man makes is the musical equivalent of the snack you take with your sixth glass of beer: so greasy that it drips off your fingers, but oh so tasty.
First things first: let’s get the administration in order: the first two songs come from the 2020 single They Shall Not Grow Old. Numbers three, four and five formed the EP Who Knows What the Dark Brings in the same year. Numbers six to eleven saw the light of day in 2022 as the EP Battle-Sight Zeroing and the last three are new, of which Apocalypse* is a cover of Hypocrisy (but without *). Now it gets more difficult. The basic musicians of all songs are guitarist/bassist and songwriter Anders Biazzi and drummer Jon Rudin. Guitarist Gustav Myrin joins from the third song. Also present as guest: William Persson Öberg (Creeping Flesh, guitar) on the first two songs. The vocalists are: Robban Karlsson (Creeping Flesh) on numbers one and two, Joakim Rudemyr (Desolator, Within the Fall) on number three, Damien Terry (Envig) on number four and Stefan Nordström (Desolator, Ending Quest and Soliloquim) on number five. Are you still there? Remco Kreft (Graceless, Soulburn and currently a regular band member with Just Before Dawn) sang on numbers six, seven, eight, ten, eleven and fourteen and Jonny Pettersson (Bezerker Legion, Henry Kane, Massacre, Wombbath) on nine and twelve. The last number is thirteen and that was sung by Dave Ingram (Echelon, Down Among the Dead Men, Benediction, ex-Bolt Thrower) and he can also be heard on the first track.
That’s that, it’s almost like Wikipedia. The interesting thing is that whoever is heard on vocals, it has little effect on the music. It is, as always with Just Before Dawn, nothing more than amazing. Effective, steamy old school death metal with a war theme that comes through so nicely in the music. Being the childish guy that I am, I have never held a serious weapon other than the airgun at the fair, but after listening to Just Before Dawn for a minute I can hardly wait to sign up for the army and enter the battlefield as quickly as possible. Ready to fight. To advance meter by meter, track down the enemy and eliminate him, with my comrades next to me, after which I humiliate him one more time as revenge for those we had to leave behind. And so on until it’s my turn and I fall down, hit by a hidden sniper’s bullet, become increasingly cold and breathe my last breath while my comrades around me swear revenge before the war machine continues again.
If you are not yet convinced, listen to any song with Remco Kreft on vocals (with a slight preference for We Will Rise): his throat puts just that little bit more emotion and variation in the songs than the others, more straight-up roarers that hits me even more. It’s simply wonderful. Hey army: give me a Colt C8! I recently shot ten teeth out of that shark’s mouth at the fair with ten bullets and with Just Before Dawn on my earphones I’ll shoot whoever you want!
Label:
Raw Skull Recordz, 2023
Tracklisting:
- They Shall Not Grow Old
- Into the First Wave
- Who Knows What the Dark Brings
- Goliath Revived
- Before the Fall
- Killzone
- MacV SoG
- Tunnel Rats
- Into An Ambush
- Tail-End Charlie
- Hill 937
- Apocalypse*
- Pathfinders
- We Will Rise
Line-up:
- Remco Kreft – Vocalen (nummers 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 en 14)
- Anders Biazzi – Gitaar, bas
- Gustav Myrin – Gitaar (behoudens nummers 1 en 2)
- Jon Rudin – Drums
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