Bloodbath – Grand Morbid Funeral

It starts with the longest scream in history. That's your man, Nick Holmes. By name alone he might sound like an estate agent who once spammed you on LinkedIn. But no, this is one Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost, death metal titans and a key influence on Bloodbath, the Swedish act which he fronts here on their fourth album. Death metal, eh? The musical genre delivered with face straight and, you suspect – hope – tongue firmly in cheek.

The titles alone are as compelling as the songs: Let the Stillborn Come to Me; Mental Abortion; Beyond Cremation; Unite in Pain; His Infernal Necropsy. An "organic collection of filth-ridden tracks straight from the grave" is the greatest slice of PR blurb in history. Lovers of earnest reflection or social commentary should probably look elsewhere. Grand Morbid Funeral is undoubtedly grand, unremittingly morbid but anything but funereal: with a fair wind, it could wake the fucking dead.