Debut Self-titled JUST BEFORE DAWN Reviewed - Track Premiere: The World Burning

So what has the Swedish death metal band Just Before Dawn to offer? Well the short bio that accompanied this Cd  dropped some serious names and promised music in the vein of Bolt Thrower and Asphyx. And closer than that can't a short bio be! For the music is heavy old school death metal, and when I say heavy I mean it is just crushing, damn this will make a lot of necks sore. And yes it sounds like Bolt thrower, the Asphyx reference I don't know since I haven't listened that much to them but I know that they play similar music to Bolt Thrower so I assume it is correct. So what about the members, well they are Rogga Johansson, Anders Biazzi,  Jonas Lindblood, Ralf Hauber, Mr.Hitchcock, Dennis Johansson,  Gustav Myrin and Tony Freed, these fellows are or have been playing in bands like Amon Amarth, Blood Mortized, Paganizer, Puteraeon, Zombification, Godhate amonge others. So why so many people, have they added a shit load of strange instruments or what is the story?? No the music is written and recorded by Anders Biazzi with the other dudes taking care of the vocals and doing the solos. I said before that the music sounds like Bolt Thrower, and I'm sticking by that statement since this is heavy no bullshit death metal the way Bolt Thrower blasts it out. But I do think that the Swedish death metal sound shines through quite a bit, the music is a bit more melodic and somber then the before mentioned band.

So I think these guys have a bit of their own sound, if you dig a bit deeper that is. I sometimes get a bit of a Amon Amarth vibe, and since the dude that writes the music used to be in Amon Amarth, this is very understandable. Take the song Ten Megaton War Machine  first of, it is a great track like all of the tracks, but what really caught my attention is the small tremolo runs in the chorus, it just screams Swedish death metal. I'm getting vibes from bands like Non Serviam and to an extent Mithotyn and just a hint of Necrophobic, and the vocals done by the mighty Mr Hitchcock from Zombification sound very Johan Hegg from Amon Amarth. I want to say they sound extremely Swedish in their delivery, even thou the dude doing them is very Mexican!

Let's keep discussing the vocals, the idea of using a different vocalist to almost every song (Jonas Lindblood does two songs) works, to be honest I did not really notice that there was a change in vocalist until track nr 5, (I listened first and read the bio second) since Mr. Hitchcock`s vocals differs from the other guys. So a cool idea and a nice way to change it up. And from a marketing perspective it is golden! Most of the vocalist have deep and low gurgling vocals, some of them are some real sewer rats.

As I mentioned before this album has a really killer sound, heavy full and deep, but this is when I talk about the guitars and bass. The drums sound kind of thin and are way in the background maybe they are using a drum machine, I can't make up my mind. If this is not the case, well spank my ass and call me Judy. Any case I think this album would have sounded better with the drums higher in the mix. In no way is this a bad sounding album, but it is just one of these things that bugged me, sometimes you can hardly hear the snare at all. But a minor detail when the songs are this good thou.     

So the short and sweet of it all is that Just Before Dawn`s debut album Precis Innan Gryningen is a  killer album from a killer bunch of musicians! And for those of you who do not speak the gloriously beautiful Swedish language, the album title is an almost direct translation of the band name, pretty fucking nifty if you ask me!

And that is what I have to say, good day.  

Sweden`s Wilhelm Lindh, "Portuguese by adoption," guitar player,  composer and owner of the Doom / Death Metal band The Gardnerz, reviews here in HeavyHardMetalmania.net. Careful and professional analysis to the music and albums with suggestions of what there is to see and hear ... not to be missed. "The wisdom is found in the extremes, all extreme Metal here!".

THE WORLD BURNING
Music:Biazzi
Lyrics:R.Johansson/Freed

Flames cover the world, sulphur clads the sky
winds of furious death, sweeps the dying earth

The warmachine has stopped, everything is dead and detroyed
the world no longer moves, it just burns

The world burning
like a flame waiting to die
The world burning 
burns and fades away

Countries set ablaze, one by one laid to waste
the downfall consumes that no life will be spared
contaminated soil, useless forever more
slowly heaving in sickness, drowning in the blood of mother earth

The final shivering of life, bodies falls to the ground 
Coal and ashes is all that is left of humanity

a mankind that thrived on it´s own death
has now burnt away
no more life, no more suffering
a cold and silent planet moves no more

1.Precis innan gryningen /Rogga Johanssson

2.As death breaks the surface /Ralf Hauber

3.Under wheels of death /Jonas Lindblood

4.Pulverised /Gustav Myrin

5.Ten megaton war machine /Mr.Hitchcock

6.Raped soil /Jonas Lindblood

7.Slagfält efter slagfält /Dennis Johansson
8.The World Burning /Biazzi/R.Johansson/Freed

Swedish Steamroller Death Metal Project "Just Before Dawn"

The band was founded by Anders Biazzi (Amon Amarth , Blood Mortized "The Key To A Black Heart review") in the summer of 2012 , Rogga Johansson ( Paganizer, Revoling, The Grotesquery...) joined in some moths later. It was meant to be a 2 man Project Anders writing the music and Rogga doing the Screams and writing the lyrics. But sone after more and more got involved in the project , Jonas Lindblood (Puteraeon) Mr. Hitchcock (Zombiefication) Gustav Myrin (Blood Mortized) Dennis Johansson (Plästerd, Headstoned) Ralf Hauber (Revel in Flesh) and Tony Freed (Godhate).In September 2012 Just Before Dawn Signs with ChaosRecordes for a 8 track CD and Vinyl! 7 great singers on 8 bloody trax! Music in the veins of Bolt Thrower and Asphyx!

Just Before Dawn was Recorded at Riders on the Storm studio

Mixed and Masterd by Benny Moberg at Sufficiently Studios

Produced By Anders Biazzi and Benny Moberg

All Music written by Anders Biazzi

Artwork and layout by Daniel Devilish

facebook.JustBeforeDawn