Nirvana 2002

Recordings 89-91

Written by: EW on 10/11/2009 17:44:57

Along with the power of flight the ability to travel through time must rate as one of man's greatest superhuman desires - we've had countless books, films and programmes dedicated to this ambition yet here we have a simple, unassuming death metal album that will do that job for you, all at the fraction of the price of a time-travel machine or that DeLorean car in the "Back to the Future" films. In "Recordings 89-91" we have pretty much all the recordings from one of the bands that never 'made it' from the Swedish death metal explosion at the tail-end of the 1980's, in the same dirty grimy glory that was de rigueur at the time.

Nirvana 2002 come from the same Stockholm school of bands as Grave, Entombed, Dismember and Nihilist, a scene that ultimately proved itself as vital and important to the growth of death metal as did the more widely praised Floridian scene that produced Death, Obituary, Deicide et al. Frankly anyone who knows anything about Grave or Entombed's old material will know exactly what is going on, as thanks to the Sunlight Studios and its timeless buzzsaw guitar sound the sound of Nirvana 2002 can be pinpointed to an exact moment and location in time. This collection of releases charts the progressions in sound and performance over 89-91 from the terribly produced "Excursions In The 2002nd Dimension" demo (1989) to the much beefier and better "Promo '91" (1991 did you know). There exists a linear pattern in that the later a song was recorded the better the production became because, lets remind ourselves, that this was a time when many bands relied purely on persistent demos and word of mouth for exposure long before the internet joined the party so musical perfection was not required!

The only song that deviates from the 89-91 period is "Mourning" (originally only "Projections Of A Stained Mind" 1990 split) which here is also culled from the bands live performance in 2007 put on in collaboration with Daniel Ekeroth's excellent book charting the ups and down of the period in question.

Clearly a release like this is put out so that the world can hear how death metal was played and produced in it's most formative years and thus by today's standards will sound lacking in virtually every single department. However, if you are able to realise that fact and call yourself a fan of death metal then you are duty-bound to work backwards in time, researching how bands like Nirvana 2002, Carnage and Nihilist laid the founding stones for the bigger and more successful bands to come, as without these bands there may never have been your Entombed's, Unleashed's or Dismember's. Lovingly done, its no surprise it has fallen to the clever minds at Relapse to issue this glorious trip through time.

Download: Mourning ('Projections Of A Stained Mind' comp 1990), Slumber ('Disembodied Spirits' '90 demo), Further Beyond ('Promo '91')
For The Fans Of: Any and every Stockholm band mentioned above.
Listen: Myspace

Release date: 10.11.2009
Relapse Records

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