In which our hero Rogga Johansson, the man behind approximately four thousand six hundred and seventy two death metal projects over the years, teams up with former Deicide man Taylor Nordberg and current Venom Inc. drummer Jeramie Kling to produce some of the most downright accessible death metal of his long career in the musical morgue. This trio are now on album number four from this iteration of the ‘Spreader, and there’s a real coherence to the playing and songwriting that really does mark this act out as one of Johansson’s premium creative outlets.

Of course this is Rogga we’re talking about, and so you effectively know what Crypt World is going to sound like before needle touches wax, but that shouldn’t deter you from having a fine old time with a record as rocking as Crypt World undoubtedly is; Starting with some gorgeously melodic lead work from Nordberg on The Dead and The Rotten, the album soon hits it’s groove and from then on the band serve up a series of short and to-the-point death metal albums dripping with all the old school filth you’d expect from Ribspreader; that said, there’s a freshness to tracks with seemingly cookie-cutter titles like Into The Morbid Pits that belies Johannson’s fecundity as a songwriter this far down the line; how he comes up with riff beyond riff is beyond the limited comprehension of a mind like mine, but he never seems to repeat himself and throughout Crypt World he hits paydirt time and again with some fine efforts.

Nordberg adds the Slayeresque flourishes as required – there are some particularly nice bits of divebombing on …Pits – and Kling provides the ballast with an effective display of drumming; Ribspreader have always been more about the collective than personal displays of brilliance, and these three acting in concert really pile on the pressure throughout Crypt World in an excellent exposition of what can be achieved by ‘playing for the team’.

As ever, it’s the slower material that stands out – the doom-riddled Good Hatchet Fun, with it’s slow parts and groovy chugging is a definite highlight – but the whole shebang, done and dusted at a tick over half an hour in duration from start to finish, proves just how much life can still be wrung out of the old school DM template when it’s placed in the right hands. Enjoyable stuff!

Crypt World releases on May 23rd.