Unleashed - Odalheim

2012 must be the year the old dogs fight back, because already seasoned metal veterans like Cannibal Corpse and Meshuggah have brought forth arguably the two best releases of the year so far. Not far behind them are the living legends from Sweden, Unleashed. Odalheim marks the 11th release for Johnny Hedlund and his band in 23 years and they show no signs of slowing down.

I can’t claim that I’ve been a fan of Unleashed for their entire career. For starters I was 7 when they first started and it wasn’t until 2002’s Hell Unleashed that I even heard of them. Even then I didn’t really listen to them. I’ll give credit to the book Lords Of Chaos as the spark to my curiosity into this band. Since then, I’ve been sold and it appears that throughout their lengthy career, they have become one of those rare gems that can do no wrong. While their earliest works lean far more into the black metal realm they have since perfected a precise blend of black, death, and thrash metal that when any other band writes something remotely close, they are labeled as “ripping off Unleashed”. Another signature aspect, and one that makes the band stand out, is Johnny Hedlund’s vocal delivery. Instead of either shrieking like a pterodactyl like the rest of the black metal world, or trying to reach down to a depth unknown with gutturals like death metal, Hedlund simply barks his lyrics of the old gods and battles exactly in a manner that I would think Viking Chieftain would command orders to his troops.

Odalheim continues the successful formula laid down by the previous Unleashed records. With the exception of sprinkling in little more black metal elements much like the first few records, nothing has changed. I embrace the mentality of “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. While most bands seem to get bored with their own material and tend to try to “experiment”, it mostly always leads to something that isn’t wanted. A band like Meshuggah, which is pretty experimental to begin with, can afford to play around with sounds and styles, while a band like Unleashed that has always been much more simplified in their approach doesn’t have that much freedom to not ruin their sound. Unleashed seems to be aware of this and continue to follow the concoction that has made them a success all these years.

This album is as straight forward and asskicking as the rest of Unleashed’s catalog, so naturally it comes highly recommended.

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