There are so many re-releases lately, from (especially) Death-stuff from the Old Times. There’s nothing wrong with that for a couple of reasons. More than once, the re-issue comes with bonus material which is previously unreleased, or extremely hard to find (limited vinyl recordings, for example, live material from unprofessional yet rememberable gigs, or demo tapes). Sometimes the re-release is sold out for a long time and therefor very welcome. However, there are re-releases that add nothing at all, and it’s only interesting for those who do not have that specific material at all.
In this case, the re-issue of Subconscious Lobotomy, it is a positive thing. Since I am ‘into the scene’ as from the second part of the eighties, I do have the album itself – originally released in 1992 via the small label Underground Records. But it comes with the rare Apocalyptic Armageddon EP (Deadly Art Productions, 2000) as bonus. Besides, the whole has been re-mastered (by Sverker Widgren, by the way, at the famous Necromorbus Studio), and it comes with new artwork, courtesy of well-known illustrator Mark Riddick.
First of all a short introduction to the band. Centinex were formed in 1990 and in 1991 they released two demos (on tape back then), Stupid Humanity and End Of Life. They signed to Underground Records (short-lived, with one more full length on its roster, Bloodchilling Tears by Sorcery, another extreme Death Metal act from Sweden), and they released their debut studio album via this Swedish label. This stuff was recorded at the grandiose and famous Sunlight Studio with top-producers Fred Estby (who also contributed as guest vocalist on the track Until Death Do Us Part) and Tomas Skogsberg (also: engineering and mix), and it got initially released in an edition of 1,000 copies only. FYI: there was a re-issue on CD before (in 2010) via Memento Mori (the Spanish Death / Doom-Death label, not the Industrial-oriented one, evidently), which included both EP’s done in between the release of this album and its successor, Malleus Maleficarum (which actually was a compilation-album, by the way), and a strictly limited re-release on vinyl too (as double-LP) via The Crypt. Several line-up changes, and more comparable releases followed during the nineties and first part of the 2000’s. Then, after 2005’s World Declension (which I do like as well, but I prefer the earliest years for sure), Centinex decided to split up. A sad situation, if not some of the members (Martin Schulman, Johan Jansson and Ronnie Bergerståhl) decided to continue with a new band; Demonical were born! And since I think this act is even greater than its predecessor… Anyway, the rest is history…
Finally this: earlier this year, Doomentia Records did release a very limited EP, which includes two covers Centinex once did; one from Sodom and one by Kreator; highly recommended, evidently!
Subconscious Lobotomy was originally recorded by founding member Martin Schulman (bass, music & lyrics) and some guys who left the band during the nineties. The album was rather ‘special’, for it combined very ‘typical’ Swedish-influenced Death Metal (you know, the kind of Grave, Crematory, Therion, Unleashed, Desultory, Dismember, Nihilist / Entombed, Edge Of Sanity, Cemetery, Hypocrisy, Darkified etc.) with lots own own-faced elements. The tempo on the album, for example, was very varying. Most of the songs did combine faster, almost groovy outbursts with slow-paced decelerations, and this does sound very organic for such an old stuff. There is the sublime equilibrium in between energetic melody and punching brutality. And most of all, Centinex add some unusual, untypical elements, like church bells, keyboard lines, acoustics or female voices. Of course it isn’t that special anymore nowadays, but at that time, there were only a couple of bands that did so (Therion, Torchure, Sinoath, Phlebotomized, The Gathering, Anathema and some hands full of others; Therion during the early nineties more specifically can be considered a huge comparison). And what about both sound and atmosphere? It surely is / was more dense, obscure and suffocating than many colleagues from Sweden, but evidently the Sunlight-sound prevails, and who am I to dislike this?...
Next comes the 2000-EP Apocalyptic Armageddon, which was originally released on splatter-vinyl in a limited edition of 500 copies only. the material was registered at the Black Lounge Studios and completely recorded, produced, mixed and engineered by the band itself (i.e. bass player Martin Schulman, as well as vocalist Johan Jansson, drummer Kennet Englund, and guitar players Kenneth Wiklund and Jonas Kjellgren; the latter, as you might know, is the owner of the Black Lounge Studio). This stuff sounds more modern (not only the production, yet also the song structures), and is more rhythmic, up-tempo and uncompromising. The atmosphere has more aggression and less abyssal grimness, but still it defines the characterising sound from South-Eastern Sweden in general (with cities like Hedemora -that’s where the band came from-, Eskilstuna, Uppsala or Stockholm as reference, counter-parting the Gothenburg approach amongst others).