Album Review: Firespawn - Shadow Realms

There are no prizes for guessing what you're going to get when members of Unleashed, Entombed and Necrophobic get together and jam.

Shadow Realms unashamedly takes from the classic Swedish death-metal playbook (buzz saw riffs, melodic leads and mid-tempo rhythms) and milks each element for all its worth. Backing up the music is a healthy dose of 'Hail Satan!' histrionics delivered via LG Petrov's patented guttural reinterpretation of the English language. Yeah, Shadow Realms is generic, and there are much better options for death-metal neophytes to get their first fix. But for the rest of us, this is sonic comfort food.