Band:	The Forsaken
Album:	Traces Of The Past
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	November 17, 2003
A review by:	Malcolm

01. A Time To Die
02. One More Kill
03. Acid With Acid - Piece By Piece
04. Glitches Will Tell
05. Traces Of The Past
06. Serpent's Tongue
07. God Of Demise
08. Massive Machinery
09. The Empire
10. First Weapon Of Choice
11. Blackened [Metallica cover]
12. Shredding My Skin [Japanese bonus]
13. Counteract The Dead [Japanese bonus]
14. Creeping Death [Metallica cover] [USA bonus]
15. Spirit In Black [Slayer cover] [USA bonus]
16. You'll Never See [Grave cover] [USA bonus]
17. Project: The New Breed 666 [USA bonus]

Since I heard a lot Brutal Death Metal lately, and it's none that I really find very exciting, I didn't hope to much for this one either, since I got it some months ago (yes, sorry very late review) and it didn't make me interested, so I putted it on a bounce of albums, and forgot about it.
But now, when I got some kind of Death Metal disease, I saw it and gave it a chance, and damn, did I like or what?

The Forsaken is the name of the band, and they hailing from Sweden.
They play something that Century Media calls Melodic Thrash/Death Metal, and I guess that's a quite good explanation, even if it's very brutal Death, not very alike the Gothenburg Death. There is of course some similarities with the Gothenburg Death, the melodies is one.
But overall it's much more brutal and the vocals is growls from a hell spawn, or maybe it is Satan him self that growls out his anger or hate for mankind?

The Forsaken was formed back in 1997 (with another name) and released their first demo cd in 1999.
After that, they signed with Century Media and have released two albums, "Manifest of Hate" in 2001 and "Arts of Desolation" in 2002.
And now they have released their third record, "Traces of the Past" in the end of 2003.
It's that very record I'm talking about here, in this review.

As I said in the beginning, that I now found a Brutal Death Metal release that I really like, and that's exactly what I have done.
This records is so full of brutal anger, and with all those Melodies, it's a damn fine record.
No masterpiece, cause it's a little of uneven yet, but I really think that this guys can do it; they have a really bright future ahead of them.

The Cover artwork is done by no other than Dark Tranquillity's Niklas Sundin, and it's a cover that's really fits the music, it's devilish and a little psycho, and that's perfect for this brutal, hellish music The Forsaken is playing.
Producer is the one I guess most of you, fans of Swedish Death know about, Tommy Tägtgren, and he have done a tremendous job in Abyss Studios so give The Forsaken this sound.
And unlike many other Death Metal releases, The Forsaken have managed to do a records that's longer then 40 minutes, please give them a warm applause for that.

The last track, the ending of the album, The Forsaken chooses to cover an old Metallica song, "Blackened". But since I'm no bigger fan of Metallica, I can't compare it to the original, so I let you guys and girls do that, you that can more than me.

So to sum it all, it's an album, in the spirit of the Gothenburg Death, but more Brutal and more Thrash inspired. But still, one of the best Brutal Death Metal band I heard, this is really music that many of the most brutal band isn't. (It's my opinion).
So it's an album you should get if you like Brutal but still Melodic Death!

Favourite Tracks: "Traces of the Past", "Serpent's Tongue", "One More Kill" & "God of Demise".