Barbarian Swords: Fetid (2024, Base Record Production)

Barbarian Swords is back in the smelly quagmire from which they emerged with a new full-length of putrid nihilistic black/doom under their belt, the putrid Fetid that was released a little over a month ago through Base Record Production. There are no line-up changes in a band that set the bar high a year ago with the notable Anti-Dogma Megaforce that was then distributed by its vocalist’s label, Eternal Juggernaut Records.

Despite the few changes that have occurred within the band, Barbarian Swords has decided to turn its sound towards the original black/doom of its first albums, leaving aside the whoring thug of the excellent Totemic Anal Turbofucker (2019, Third I Rex) and the aforementioned Anti-Dogma Megaforce that continue to stand as his two most interesting works in his already interesting career. Ten years separate Fetid from their debut album Hunting Rats (2014, Blood Fire Death) although the band’s progression becomes more than evident when the dark and dense Cherokee Firestorm comes into action. The Barcelona trio puts all the meat on the grill with heavy and forceful riffs where the guitars of Steamroller and Panzer introduce us to the sinister atmosphere that only Von Päx‘s voice is capable of portraying with its soulless gutturals.

Six songs make up one of the greatest works that Barbarian Swords has produced to date with a total duration of just over forty-five minutes where anarchy reigns everywhere and takes no prisoners, resulting in a musical utopia that shows the total decline and absolute of a decadent society that has fallen into disrepair, as the band makes clear in the brutal Genocidal Theogony where the Catalan trio attacks all religions without mercy, destroying everything in its path in a morbid exercise in musical annihilation.

The most interesting thing that Barbarian Swords has achieved with Fetid is to bring together a very interesting amount of infernal riffs that develop slowly but that penetrate deeply as if a disease were taking over the listener. The Barcelona trio is aware of their ability to create gloomy atmospheres, if we also add the mixing and mastering by the superb Javi Bastard at Moontower Studios we can be sure that quality will be present above all other things.

The icing on the cake is Not Even Light, which puts an end to an excellent Fetid where everything is in its place, nothing is left over and nothing is missing in the fifth full-length of Barbarian Swords, which once again surprises with its good work, unleashing chaos and destruction in his career as only its members know how to do.