Skeletal Spectre - Tomb Coven (2009)

   After a while it seems like there's no newer Swedish death metal project without Rogga Johansson, who definitely became a centric figure of the local scene. But fortunately his frequent appearence rather expects certain high quality instead of various forms of self-repetition.
   Skeletal Spectre catched a new waved form of death/doom that's evidently strongly compatible with the sound of Swedish death metal, and doesn't go too far with slow downs and extended song lenght. The album mostly prefers to stay at middle speed, but the heavy, ominious doom themes having the main focus. The style of the noisy riffings and background atmosphere creating guitar themes are somehow strongly reminding to Acid Witch. This is like a modern way to create some vintage-like effect that sounds like to refer back to some old horror classics. And musically it serves as a reference to the metal classics o the '80s, like occasionally a very familiar feeling might wave back from these quite simple but the same time catchy themes. Something that reminds to old Celtic Frost? But before the dejavu effect was complete, they switch by some speed up, or slow down, and it gets perished. The way how they created a bridge between the old school and modern sound of metal could be enjoyable for the fans of the genre.