Sweden is home to so many amazing metal bands that have shaped every sub-genre of metal as a whole. Faustus can without a doubt stake a claim on the mountain of Death metal. Memoriam is their second full length album, the first being Laments of an Obscure Mind which came out in 2018 followed by a handful of singles released just this year in 2022. Memoriam is a massive leap forward from Laments of an Obscure Mind. The progression from 2018 to 2022 is impressive in regard to their overall musicianship. The album as a whole is very thoughtful, brutal, tasteful, organized chaos.
The opening Track Deprived of Liberty  hits all the marks for me as a listener. It’s important to come out swinging for the fences and they did exactly that. The listener is immediately taken into their headspace, their world. There’s nuances of some metal greats in the opener that are reminiscent of Decapitated mixed with Nevermore with a dash of Meshuggah which coincidently come to the surface more throughout the album. Moving further down the album Existence, Death? transcends the listener right into their jam space. There’s a large amount of atmosphere on this track that creates an audible emotional weight as we listen. The vocals are somewhat haunting when paired with the open syncopation arrangements.
Sleep creates this haunting wall of sound again. The band hits a massive amount of groove riffs together which would undoubtedly move an entire crowd in attendance at a show. It’s no wonder why this song was selected as the bands single from this album. This one song fully encompasses the band as a whole, it showcases their thoughtfulness in a controlled chaotic seting. Theres some classic Gothenburg Metal nuance interlaced through this portion of the album which was the chefs kiss to Sleep as a song.
Faustus had planned to write their heaviest album possible right in the middle of the pandemic. Perhaps that’s why this album in general sounds …well… PISSED. The five-piece recorded Memoriam at Obsidian Recordings with legendary producers Robert Kukla and Fredrik Nordstrom who have recorded so many revolutionary metal albums to list your head would explode but we will name a few. They’ve recorded and produced Arch Enemy, At The Gates, Dimmu Borgir, The Haunted, In Flames, Opeth, Septic Flesh, Soilwork etc. It’s no wonder the album sounds like a claim stake, you have an amazing group of musicians in Faustus recording with legendary producers in a legendary studio.
There’s no argument Faustus has a bright career ahead of them and hopefully the buzz created about their recent release will be enough for us to see another release sooner in the future than 4 more years.Â
Overall score 9/10
Review by: George Bauman IV
