Dödsvarg – Total System Collapse, Fuck!

Jon Ekström is a strange fellow, who creates music in exactly the way he likes it. The ‘band’ Dödsvarg is his solo project and I wish anyone good luck trying to pigeonhole his unique and hefty sound. He seems to like anything loud, if we can deduce anything from his year list of records that is. Total System Collapse, Fuck! is his latest endeavour on the terrain of sonic explorations and I must say it’s rather intriguing and pretty awesome.

Officially this would be the second record, but interesting enough the next record is going to be released soon as well, titled Om Det Där Med Omänskliga realtioner. The first one was called Livet är dödsorsak (life is the cause of death) and tells us something about the strange humor that is to be found in the music of Dödsvarg. Scandinavia has produced various interesting and refreshing sounds, however a bit grim at times, and this product of Stockholm is no different. If you’d like to compare it to other artists, look somewhere between Converge, Darkthrone and Skinny Puppy and you still are nowhere near.

The titletrack opens with some jangling electronic sounds and is followed by a heavy pulsating drone of distorted guitar noise with vocals being blurted over it. The weird jangling continues, even after the rhythm moves into a heavy pattern like in a Ministry song. The elements are drawn from everywhere but it fits rather nicely. ´En dag är lång som ett år´  displays a heavy pounding drumbeat from the drumcomputer with high pitched guitarplaying soaring somewhere high above in the sound spectrum. This creates a nice groove, until about half way the song, when the screamed and shouted vocals pierce the calm and turn the song around to a darker pattern.

´Det finns inget ljus i den där jävla tunneln´ opens with a descending guitar riff, that reminds me of Mayhem’s ´Frozen Moon´. That, however, ebbs away and then the powerful distorted pattern surges up, pushing everything aside. The record finishes with the almost funky played ‘Skärseld’, that has a lot of mild guitar parts that make everything sound more gentle. The vocals than burst through and the sound swells up again. Suddenly it ends and your ears keep ringing, not knowing what you actually just heard.

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