There are always high expectations when a new band rolls off the Swedish heavy metal production line. Marionette is the latest, and potentially the greatest of the current crop of Scandinavian rockers. Inspired by the Japanese comic book hero Saber Marionette and hardcore music, this Viking sextet mixes raw power, shade, energy, thrust and aggression on its debut album. As the title implies, 'Spite' is full of malevolence, complex savagery and rapid, epic riffing with enough guttural utterances to blister the wallpaper. It's all hard eyeballing, scheming demons, sick grooves and utterly bitter, expansive, unrepentant rock. The result is an album that's as spiteful as an old widow with a grudge.
Marionette makes one hell of a din. Ferocious, inventive and full of psychotic rage, this band delivers its amalgam of white-hot death metal blast-furnaces, hardcore punk and bestial grunts with unyielding strength. From the opening track, Parasite, there's a terrible tantrum that doesn't stop until the final, and arguably the finest track, This Is The End, ends in nu-metal grandeur. Layered between these cuts are ten robust, over-loaded gems full of rammed earth and careening noise that's profoundly infectious. Tightly structured, each song delivers ferocious musical body blows from punch drunk pugilists. Legion is tough, Release is hard, Flies rushes, Closed Doors strikes straight, Burn Me delivers an upper-cut and In Spite bites the ears. There's no defence. It's sheer attack from start to finish. 'Spite' may not be the best metal album of the year but it's certainly a contender.
There are always high expectations when a new band rolls off the Swedish heavy metal production line. Marionette is the latest, and potentially the greatest of the current crop of Scandinavian rockers. Inspired by the Japanese comic book hero Saber Marionette and hardcore music, this Viking sextet mixes raw power, shade, energy, thrust and aggression on its debut album. As the title implies, 'Spite' is full of malevolence, complex savagery and rapid, epic riffing with enough guttural utterances to blister the wallpaper. It's all hard eyeballing, scheming demons, sick grooves and utterly bitter, expansive, unrepentant rock. The result is an album that's as spiteful as an old widow with a grudge. 
