Artist: Leper Colony
Country: Germany / Sweden
Label: Testimony Records
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
In hindsight I might have been a bit too positive on Leper Colony’s self-titled debut album from 2023. Since the few spins around the time I reviewed it, I never revisited it and now that I listened to it again for the review of that album’s follow-up, I can’t conclude anything else than that it a decent album at best. But, hardly memorable. However, that album at least had some interesting dynamics to offer, something that is usually the big problem in any of Rogga Johansson’s brand of Death Metal. And, to just spoil the fun, this new album is a way more typical Rogga album than this project’s first offering.
In fact, ‘Those Of The Morbid’ sounds as cheap as its cover artwork, like a series of rehashed riffs from whatever of Rogga’s 666 other projects. Where ‘Leper Colony’ has some refreshing twists and turns in terms of riffs, transitions in melodies and pace, none of that is to be found on this record. At the risk of sounding like a stuck long-playing record: ‘Those Of The Morbid’ sounds as uninspired as basically 95% of what Rogga has been doing the past two decades.
Sure, there are a few decent riffs here and there, but the majority seems just left-overs from Ribspreader or Paganizer, two bands that in their own right are already pretty boring. Even Marc Grewe (ex-Morgoth) sounds tired and not much is left from what made him one of the most inspiring voices of the early 90’s Death Metal movement. The addition of Håkan Stuvemark (Wombbath and Consumption) on drums and Jon Rudin (Just Before Dawn and Heads For The Dead) on guitar duties didn’t change much. If any, there are a few okay-ish guitar leads to spice things up at least a little.
If Leper Colony’s second album proves anything it is that the Death Metal scene is severely suffering from the shifting baseline syndrome, meaning that you are getting used to an increasingly lower level of quality.
