Falkenburg, Sweden's By Night has everything you may expect from a Swedish metal band: a strong sense of melody combined with thrash, death and speed metal riffs, machine gun double bass and a screaming vocalist. A New Shape of Desperation is the band's second release for Lifeforce Records, following their debut, Burn the Flags. By Night was named "Sweden's Best Unsigned Band" by Close Up Magazine prior to their first album and has toured with the likes of Ektomorf and Deadsoil. The five-piece, in addition to having the trademark Swedish sound, also compares to Fear Factory thanks to the album’s industrial textures. The usual comparisons are here, as well, namely Soilwork or The Haunted, both in the harsh, yet comprehensible vocal style and guitar tone. I'm not going to bore you with all the other names, as it is now implied in the sound of Swedish metal. Any soloing or extensive melodic guitar parts are kept to a minimum, however, favoring a more straightforward approach, perhaps suggesting the band also has somewhat of a hardcore background.

Stand-out tracks include the anthemic “The Truth Is Sold,” the downtuned-riff-happy “Same Old Story,” the brooding “Dead Eyes See No Future” (no, it's not an Arch Enemy cover) and the Soilwork-inspired “Forsaken Love.” The instrumental album closer, “Time Is Running Out,” is also of note, as it features haunting piano and layers of guitar fuzz.

By Night certainly won't change the current landscape of heavy metal as their material is neither original nor overly imaginative. However, the album's crisp production is outstanding and A New Shape of Desperation packs a precision wallop that fewer and fewer bands are able to deliver. If you miss out on this record, life will carry on, but if you happen to pick it up, this is a solid, heavy recording from an up-and-coming band.