Every Friday, The Metal Examiner delves metal’s endless depths to present the genre’s most important and exciting albums.
Miasmal: Miasmal (Dark Descent, 4/15/2011)
Miasmal: “Toxic Breed”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/06-Toxic-Breed.mp3|titles=Miasmal – Toxic Breed]Based in the metal-rich city of Gothenburg, Miasmal offers a punk-ish perspective on the classic Swedish death-metal sound. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Swedish bands like Dismember, Unleashed, and Entombed borrowed heavily from Scandinavian hardcore bands such as Anti-Cimex and Bastards, as well as mainland European thrash bands like Sodom and Celtic Frost. As such, the distinctions between metal and punk in Scandinavia are blurrier than they are in some other regions. Miasmal’s music falls on the hardcore-ish end of the death-metal spectrum, which comes as no surprise given that guitarist and vocalist Pontus also plays in Martyrdöd, a crusty hardcore band.