Smother Magazine

Thrash metal that is unafraid of daring to do things a little outside of the Swedish metal mold. Slightly growling vocals that kill throats and remind one of near Slayer awesome. Fast and pounding drums anthem their way into your brain causing ecstasy and headbanging. These are some mean looking fucks too on their cover art. I highly doubt any one in Guillotine would be afraid to be the executioner and purveyor of the bloody guillotine. Let the heads roll I could hear them say. But also “Blood Money” isn’t a bunch of mindless blatthering about how tough the band is, how much gore they can shove into their lyrics, or how anti-society they are. Thankfully they attack the politics of the U.S. and the ridiculous amount of money that corporations and politicians push around to one another. Guillotine refuses to sit around amid this circle jerk of influence and peddling without raising their voice. And that voice is a welcome one.

While I’m as much of a fan of the Swedish death metal sound as the next guy, the genre is getting plagued by sound-a-likes. Enemy is Us has all the talent and the chops in the world but sound like a replica of stalwarts like At the Gates and Darkest Hour. Push that criticism aside (I mean it’s almost a compliment to be comparable to either one of those great bands), and you have yourself a pretty damn sweet album co-produced by Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Soilwork, Meshuggah).