Unleashed - As Yggdrasil Trembles (2010)

Swedish Death Metal legends Unleashed are back with another great album, “As Yggdrasil Trembles” marks another great release in the band’s career. If there is one thing you can count on with Unleashed is consistency. The band has managed to maintain their original style for almost 20 years, and yet they still sound fresh.

Forming over 20 years ago, Unleashed has played a major role in the development of Viking Metal and bands that talked about Scandinavian mythology in general. Since the band was the first to use this topics in their lyrics, instead of the traditional ‘blood and guts’ approach, this has made them very unique since the beginning.

Having released an album every two years during the last decade, the band has managed to maintain their musical identity intact while never sounding outdated. Unleashed’s DM approach is very straight forward and more melodic than other bands of the genre. Featuring a wide array of catchy riffs and guitar solos, the band does a great job showing that you don’t need to be extremely technical to produce effective music.

The drumming in “As Yggdrasil Trembles” is top notch as always, very tight and well varied. Hedlund’s vocals are as good as ever, having that ‘understandable’ growl that he’s used in the band’s last albums. No other ‘fancy’ elements are found here, just basic old-school DM elements paired with a great production.

As pointed out by Anders Schultz in our interview with him (HERE), the concept behind the album features a trilogy of songs that will be continued in the band’s next album. These songs are about the current ‘trembling’ state of the world, or as called/viewed by mythology as the Yggdrasil. The rest of the songs are standalone stories.

In overall, “As Yggdrasil Trembles” is a great album from this legendary band that should not be missed by any fans of the band, or even the occasional DM listener. If you are looking to get into the band, you should definitely check this release out since it showcases a very mature Unleashed sound.

Release: April 6th, 2010

Country: Sweden