UNANIMATED - IN THE LIGHT OF DARKNESS (2009)

I've been listening to this the 3rd Unanimated album very much lately.

In 1995 I would never think it would take Unanimated 14 years to make this record but I’m extremely glad they did.

Just recently they signed a  record contract with Century Media for 3 records rumors say the new album will be released in October. That's great news but I really wish that all their albums will be reissued on LP since I don’t own any of them on vinyl.

Strange that Ancient God Of Evil (1995) their absolute masterpiece have never been officially released on LP let’s hope it’s included in the deal. 

Some concern I have though is that the band has been together for 30 years and only released 3 records over a 25 year period. But let’s think positive and hope for many albums, tours, DVD, Blu-Ray, merchandise and all of that good stuff.

But about In The Light Of Darkness it’s fucking excellent!! I often use words like that because I’m only write about music I own and like but in this case if you should definitely believe me because this one is brilliant. 

Sure it isn’t as good as Ancient God Of Evil but it’s actually not that far behind. Only minor gripe I got is the rather boring uninspiring cover artwork and the title could’ve been some other song title because there’s a bunch of better ones on the album.

I’ve always thought of Unanimated as one of the 5 best bands from Sweden of all time. If they’d got their “shit together” in the 90’s Unanimated should have been huge in my opinion.

Definitely read the interview with bassist Richard Cabeza over at http://www.bardomethodology.com/articles/2016/06/29/unanimated-interview/ it’s almost 2 years old but still relevant and gives insight to the bands struggle. Another one you can read is also this one https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2012/08/01/richard-cabeza-unanimated-interviewed/.

I often compare Unanimated with Dissection even if they both have or (had rather) their own unique sound. But their stories are almost the same a bunch of childhood friends that started to play together and made amazing music even if Dissection's story took another turn after Jon Nödtveidt's arrest. 

The Unanimated debut In The Forest Of The Dreaming Dead (1993) isn’t as good as the Dissection debut album The Somberlain (1993) but the potential is there.

One can only think what could’ve happened if Ancient God Of Evil had been released on a bigger label then No Fashion Records say for example Century Media, Nuclear Blast or even Osmose Productions.

Unanimated recorded In The Light Of Darkness in the great Necromorbus Studio with Tore Stjerna (ex. Funeral Mist etc) he has certainly been involved in many amazing records and it was great that they choose to record there.

The band had almost the same lineup as on Ancient God Of Evil except former guitarist Jonas Mellberg. Longtime original guitarist Jojje Bohlin does an excellent job but there’s some guest guitar leads on 4 songs by Sebastian Ramstedt (Necrophobic) and Erik Wallin (Merciless) & Set Teitan (ex. Dissection) appears on 1 song each. Set Teitan was also a session live guitarist with Unanimated and played on what many thought was their final gig in 2010 in Germany.

Also lyrics contributions by Necro (Pest) and Erik Danielsson (Watain). Jojje Bohlin wrote most of the music for In The Light Of Darkness but the now former drummer Peter Stjärnvind wrote 3 of them. The lyrics are usually written by vocalist Micke Jansson and bassist Richard Cabeza. 

This album sounds more nasty, more evil and more Black Metal then Ancient God Of Evil and I can’t believe it’s 14 years between this and the previous one. Probably going to upset someone, before I want to say that Storm of the Light's Bane is my 2nd favorite album of all time, but this’s how I wanted Reinkaos to sound like but that’s a whole other topic... The opening intro and the song Retribution In Blood sounds almost like a continuation of Storm of the Light’s Bane actually.

Other then that it’s very much Unanimated sounding but like I wrote definitely more nasty and evil sound to it then their previous work. Since 2011 Anders Schultz (Unleashed) has replaced Peter Stjärnvind on drums and they have a new guitarist Jonas Deroueche (ex. General Surgery) that also played with Richard Cabeza in Carbonized with a bunch of other recognizable people in the Swedish Death Metal scene in the early 90’s.

The t-shirt is the one sold at the Kraken gig with Watain in Stockholm on the 5th of January as you can see on the back of the shirt sadly I didn’t attend that one and bought it online.

Saw the concert on YouTube and the new song Adversarial Fire sounds fucking great. See the video for the full concert, if you watch it here, it starts at the new song but be sure to watch the full thing. Unanimated are truly one of a kind and their 3 albums are mandatory to have in a Black/Death Metal collection!