Coldworker started out last January, initiated by the drummer of Nasum after they quit because of the tragic death of singer Mieszko Talarczyk, a subject which has not been touched upon on this album by the way. Anders Jakobsen gathered some talented musicians and only two months after the first rehearsals they started to record The Contaminated Void. Let’s see how this worked out!

 

If you’d expect that Coldworker continues where Nasum ended you’re totally wrong, because Coldworker’s sound is mainly death metal. It has some grindcore influences, like the songs are all relatively short for death metal standards and Anders still keeps blasting on the drums, but overall the songs are much more diverse. In opener ‘The Interlooper’ we get to hear an almost too standard Cannibal Corpse riff, but when you hear the rest of the CD this appears to be an exception. Coldworker really managed to develop a great sound of their own. They don’t push the gas peddle constantly, but also give the listeners some time to get their breath, which makes this album very well listenable. Like in the song ‘Return to Ashes’ with its really swinging rhythm which feels a bit weird but it simply works out great, especially when the song evolves in a more brutal sound with a nice slow grooving riff accompanied by some awesome high pinches.

 

There isn’t like one genius behind this band; singer Joel Fornbrant is the only one who didn’t write a single riff for the album, the other four musicians’ input blended into a successful mix of US death metal brutality and the European, well Swedish, melodic death metal. It’s full blasting death metal like they said for themselves in the interview last month on this site. The vocals add more brutality to the sound with the low grunts, but nothing really spectacular here. Most of the material is pretty technical like in the title track of the album; it never becomes hard to get into, but the riffs are simply very well constructed and complicated without losing the almost catchy flow of the songs.

 

This album is definitely worth checking out, it won’t disappoint you. In the beginning of next year they’re going to tour Europe with an interesting package: Necrophagist, Misery Index and Burning Skies/Diskreet. Not all tour dates have been confirmed yet, but we’ll keep you updated!

 

Oh, and be sure to visit their website, because there is a nice track by track explanation of how every song came together!