This Is Hell

This Is Hell is the second album, on which Dimension Zero tightened the speed of its predecessor further. The line-up moved: Daniel Antonsson of Pathos came in on guitar and Jesper Strömblad shifted to bass. Glenn Ljungström then left after the recording was finished but before the record appeared — he is absent from the video for “Immaculate.” The pair who started this band in 1995 had lost half of itself. Regain released it, and the whole thing was made around the members' day jobs. The opener “The Introduction to What This Is” is nothing but uneasy noise and distant riffing, and it is the only place on the album where the speed drops. From “Dimension Zero” onward nothing stops. Blast beats and riffs that switch almost schizophrenically run to the end. Melody has not vanished, but — as in the chorus of “Immaculate” — it only shows through the gaps in the violence. Göthberg's voice moves closer to a classic shriek, too, with the long black-metal screams receding. Past “Amygdala” and “Killing My Sleep” to “Di'I Minores,” there are ten tracks. As Gothenburg melodic death was turning sweeter, this record walked the other way.