Souldrainer is the next very good band from Sweden. They play heavy and dark metal and they are here to impress. “Reborn” appears as a debut album for the band, although seven of the ten songs have already been released in different demos and EPs. However, don’t expect burnished elementary thunders of learning to walk musicians. The tracks, no matter whether old or not, are loaded with such a power that it is hard to remain indifferent while listening to them. After the serious beginning with “First Row in Hell”, “Internal Suicide” comes to unleash the whole potential of Souldrainer upon our heads. Heavy, chopped riffs, thick fund of dark impressions and amazingly weaved synth-melodies are like the basis for the insane screams of Johan Klitkou. His vocal abilities are so unearthly great that one involuntary experiences physical pain of his deep growls, while the melodies flow from heavy, brutal death metal to lyrical declinations every now and then. The associations awaken by the music of the band are many, but this doesn’t impersonate the compositions at all and only gives a hint to who has inspired the Swedish. The slow and apocalyptical epic hymns “Daemon To Daemon”, “Black Thirteen” and specially “Angel Song”, with the clean singing in them, strongly remind of the lyrical depressions of the titans Hypocrisy and the melancholic melodic death metal of Godgory, while the rhythmic and energetic “The Others” and the title song “Reborn” are like a heavier reading of the Finnish Diablerie. Fast compositions, however, are almost absent. Most of the tracks are in mid tempo, which - combined with the dense and heavy sound, the melodic guitar lines and the keyboard passages - creates a permanent feeling of despair, but this is not the main advantage of the band. It’s the singing. While the music dooms and stultifies the existence, the vocals drain the energy, paralyze and overtake like they’re the roars of a merciless demon that bites with screams bloody pieces straight from the soul. Unnoticeably you make the conclusion that the name of the band is invented as a pseudonym for Johan... Unfortunately, recently it turned out that the emblematic frontman has decided to leave the Souldrainer. This will probably reflect on leaving “Reborn” among the pile of incredibly good albums by bands that have seized to exist before reaching the recognition they deserve. I hope I’m wrong!