Let's be honest: sometimes it's hard to get too excited when you see the words “Swedish” “death” and “thrash” tossed around (not sure why, but “second album” also adds to the exhaustion some days), but pretty quickly into “Reborn In Fire”, the first track on this second album from Swedish death/thrashers Dethrone, all ears perk up as the band lays down viciously fast, yeah, death/thrash. But it's edgy, and it feels like hearing The Haunted for the first time; that was a good feeling, and so is this, as the band scissor beats and blast beats but does so with a precision that slices with perfection, not manic energy. And, you guessed it, that takes away from some of the power here, the band's sound so punchy and perfect at times you just wish for a snare hit to sound a bit different than the last or some sign of humanity to slice through the barbed-wire riffage. 

Or, maybe you don't and that's just me, as Dethrone here carry on the really quite admirable legacy left behind by bands like Carnal Forge, the sound on tunes like “Morbid Existence” both intense and well-written, the attention to craft impressive here. Then, the riffing on songs like “Spiritual Deception” just remind us all of the awkward fact that The Haunted haven't really written good riffs like this in years, have they? Not saying that by the time you get to the end of this disc you'll have the same feeling you did the first time you got to the end of the first Haunted disc, but, stick around, you never know: second-to-last cut “Dawn Of Demise” is killer, dramatic, engaging stuff.