Comecon Megatrends in Brutality

Comecon 'Megatrends in Brutality' (Svart, 2010)

After laying down the benchmark for ultra-raw Stockholm brutal bellowing on Entombed's 1990 unparalleled masterpiece, 'Left Hand Path', L. G. Petrov found himself bereft of employment. There are many accounts of why Lars Goran was chucked out of Entombed but both he and Nicke Andersson seem to agree that it had something to do with L. G. chatting up Nicke's girlfriend at a party.

Entombed went to on to produce the more streamlined and decidedly less brutal 'Clandestine', upon which the story behind the vocals is worth a Blip in itself, and L. G. offered his vocal prowess to Comecon.

Comecon have many of the trappings of a classic Swedish death metal band; the Nihilist font logo, a deal with Century Media (this is an excellent Svart re-release) and the scene's most iconic voice, but unfortunately it doesn't gel.

First off the drums are terrible. It's pretty obvious that they are a drum machine and that they've been programmed by somebody with very little experience. Or they could have recruited Bill Andrews of Death fame. Either way they're not very good.

The lack of feel from the drumming lends a sterile feel to Tomas Skogsberg's typically filthy production. The songwriting is also slightly disjointed; 'Armed Solution' is quite typical with one foot in thrash and the other in death, and many of the riffs cannot flow with the clunking automaton as backing.

Having said that there is a substantial amount of the crusty grind mixed with Celtic Frost sound, which is now so uber popular amongst the black clad dwellers of Henry's Cellar Bar, to keep me happy, particularly on 'Dog Days' and 'The Future Belongs to Us', which probably boasts L. G.'s best vocal.

Lu remarked 'This sounds quite like Morbid Angel' which is not a million miles off at some points; 'Conductor of Ashes' could be a demo from the 'Altars of Madness' sessions, but they never reach the heights of the Floridian masters, as few do.

L. G. made up with Nicke and was soon back in Entombed and Comecon continued with different session musicians and good old Pete Bontempi on drums. Their second LP featured the almighty Martin Van Drunen and their third had Marc Grewe of Morgoth, so they definitely had pulling power.

Hilariously, they pretend that there is a real drummer on this recording crediting him as Neerg Serdna and blurring the face of a band friend in the inner sleeve photo.

Peace