Review by Vladimir on May 27, 2023.

Finally, it’s time for some good old “Svensk Döds Metall“ and I will be covering none other than Vomitory from Sweden! Vomitory is a band that I caught up a bit later from Sweden’s rich catalog of classic death metal bands, even though I have already been quite familiar with bands like Nihilist/Entombed, Unleashed, Grave, Dismember, At The Gates etc. Nevertheless, I did end up being very much a fan of this band thanks to their bloody, raw and savage death metal sound which still continues to rip flesh to this very day, even with their ninth full-length All Heads Are Gonna Roll, released on May 26th via Metal Blade Records.

The famous savage flesh-ripping sound of Vomitory is still very much present on this album, expressed through aggressive death-thrashing tremolo riffs, heavy metal-like guitar solos, double-bass drumming, d-beats and blast beats, and Erik Rundqvist’s guttural growls. Although you’re able to quickly familiarize with the album’s overall template, you will still come across rhythmic changes in songs, where fast tremolo picking and blast beats might switch to mid-tempo drumming and downpicking before switching back. To add icing to the cake, there are instances of hardcore-influenced moments with punk/d-beat drumming and riffing you’ll come across in 'The Deepest Tomb', 'Raped, Strangled, Sodomized, Dead', 'Dead Man Stalking' and 'Beg For Death', which add nicely to the blast beats that serve as a follow up. Although this might be just something that only I experienced, there are times when I felt that certain tremolo riffs in songs would come very close to sounding melodic. Although that would have been interesting to hear, I think that personally Vomitory would definitely not even dare to do so because it would automatically stray off from their musical path for the past 30 years. The songwriting in general is pretty simple and straightforward, but still on point, never being anticlimactic or lifeless where a certain section in a song could have been completely left out or at least should have been better thought-out. The sound production for All Heads Are Gonna Roll is very high quality but still damn heavy. The guitars and bass, along with the drums and vocals are altogether really powerful and definitely on the verge of blowing your speakers.

Although I am personally very much attached to their classics such as Raped In Their Own Blood, Redemption and Revelation Nausea, which I would still prefer listening over this album, I think that All Heads Are Gonna Roll is overall a very headbanging and crushing album that is not kidding or bullshitting like other death metal bands tend to do in this day and age. Vomitory clearly knows how to “talk the talk” and “walk the walk”, and yet their ninth album proves that they are still angry and bloodthirsty as before. Whatever people may think of this album, you can’t deny that Vomitory sticks to their death metal formula which hasn’t let anyone down or caused them to lose interest in the band. 

Rating: 8.4 out of 10