Lik – Misanthropic Breed (Metal Blade)
Thursday, 8th October 2020
Some things you can depend upon pretty well. When it comes to old school death metal, particularly of the Swedish variety, you can bet upon getting a nice meaty guitar tone to sink your teeth into. Lik comes from the very grounds of that sound’s birth and for their third effort, Misanthropic Breed, they take it for everything they possibly can.
That cozy HM-2 buzzsaw gives Lik plenty of backbone to work their sound off of. The band is at their best when they really dig into the faster tempos and just lay down oodles of metallic carnage. “The Weird” wastes almost no time in delivering that sensation to the listener as the band franticly tosses in destructive riffs at high speeds, culminating in an energetic rush of epic proportions. It’s completely raging and furious. Exactly what you want to hear in this throwback sound. But to simply do that would put them at the same level as many a band that dole out SweDeath material. What makes Lik a higher quality is the attention that they give to melodies in this whirlwind of death. Punchy solos are all over the map, and tracks like “Decay” and “Flesh Frenzy” are able to dish out lots of snarling aggression but keep a more solid foundation intact with flashy solos and a subtle bit of Maiden-esque melody sprinkled in to the riffs to give them some extra polish. They occasionally lay off the gas pedal a tad too, with some slower and more rumbling numbers like “Female Fatal to the Flesh” digging into massive mid-tempo grooves and ramping up the melodic end to some effective results.
While the sound of Lik may be something more traditional in nature, Misanthropic Breed still succeeds because it’s soaking in chaos with just a pinch of necessary melodies brought in to make it shine. Those who revel in old school death metal are probably hip to these guys already, but if not, you are really missing out on a solid act.
