HEARSE 'In These Veins' (Candlelight) RATING: 9/10

By RYAN MAVITY

Now here is some kick-ass thrash/death metal. In These Veins by Swedish extreme metal band Hearse is as relentless as a bear attack and just as brutal. The album grabs hold of the listener by the balls and doesn’t let go for 38 headbanging minutes.

The album starts with the blistering, six-minute “House of Love.” The band plays at mind-numbing speed, but Hearse isn’t just out to be fast. This is a tight band with all the instruments in lockstep with one another. “Intoxication” and “Naked Truth” show off the band’s technical virtuosity but also allow frontman (and former Arch Enemy singer) Johann Liiva to get some scary growls in there. Besides the band’s obvious skill, the other thing that stands out on In These Veins is the quality of production. It’s hard to believe an album this loud and heavy could come from only three dudes, but it’s true. Once the band gets rolling, they don’t slow down until “Crusade,” but that allows Liiva to channel his inner Lemmy and let loose his most sinister vocal performance on the record. How can you not love the line “You’ll get your kicks on/Route 666”?

Around the halfway point of the album, the band switches gears a little and shows off some range. “Among the Forlorn” actually has a quiet guitar break before Liiva sets the band loose on a full-blown freak-out. “Atrocious Recoil” is a song Iced Earth would be proud of, with its power metal riffage combined with a mix of spoken vocals and tortured screams. The band careens from every metal extreme they can uncover. If the first half of the disc was the band showing off its speed, the second shows them adding some off-kilter wrinkles to the sound. “Hearse” is a slower instrumental track that would be right at home on South of Heaven, before the title track ends things on a grand high note.

It took almost a year for In These Veins to come out in the States. American metal fans should do themselves a favor and check these guys out. This is as ass-kicking an album as you want to find.