Harrowed The Eternal Hunger Review
Harrowed
The Eternal Hunger
Dying Victims Productions
2026
Stockholm, Sweden, is a veritable death metal Mecca and has been since the boys from Carnage, Entombed, and Dismember all decided to make ungodly racket (complete with the now legendary and OFTEN imitated “buzzsaw” guitar sound they cultivated by cranking every knob to ten on an old BOSS HM-2 pedal through solid-state amps) and form bands in the late ’80s. They gave birth to an entire subgenre known as the “Stockholm sound” that owed to their ferocious blending of crust-infused punk with thrash, mashing it all up in a blender with Death, Possessed, and Hellhammer. If you're a death metal historian, you already know all of this, though. Chances are you also know that ANYTHING awesome from this country at the time usually had “Produced by Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studios” somewhere in the liner notes. In that same spirit, we have the debut album from Harrowed, The Eternal Hunger.
Harrowed came bubbling up from the sewers of Stockholm, featuring members of outliers Morbus Chron. The band was the brainchild of vocalist/drummer Adam Lindmark, who has teamed up with guitarist Tobias Alpadie (VAK, ghost department of Tribulation). A demo and subsequent split arrived in 2021 and ’22, respectively. These two releases solidified Harrowed’s sonic stew. Take equal parts of Autopsy, Entombed, Obituary, and Deathstrike, “funneled through a garbage disposal,” according to Adolf Vondkra of the Tones of Decay festival, and you pretty much have their sound nailed down. The eight songs here are fast, rifftastic, and filled with malicious intent. Unlike their elder countrymen, they don't set the HM-2 to kill levels, but it is present in the guitar tones. They teamed up with Robert Pehrsson (Death Breath, ex-Runemagick) in his Studio Humbucker during the summer of 2025, set to create an authentically physical sound. That sound is undeniably clear and concise but maintains a vintage raw edge.
So, what of the songs, then? Well, to start, not many of them break the three- to four-and-a-half-minute barrier, so Harrowed are clearly here for a bloody and disgusting good time, not a long time. The two that do (“The Haunter” and the closing title track “The Eternal Hunger”) surpass six minutes each, but they never veer into anything meandering or seem like they're wandering. No, these guys have strength in writing catchy riffs, keeping the tempos quick, and showcasing short bursts of eerie atmosphere, slower mid-paced sections, and doom-laden excursions. This approach keeps things fresh and the ever-flowing stream going seamlessly. Another aspect they incorporate so well is punk riffing colliding with the more vintage death metal structures, the best examples being the sharpness of opener “Bayonet,” “Blood Covenant,” and the near Discharge-like “The Reigns.” Wrap all this up with the acerbic LG Petrov–inspired vocals, and this is old school for those who like their death metal baring its teeth, keeping things loose, and with plenty of fuck-you attitude to spare. This is death ’n’ roll for the 2020s, most assuredly.
Harrowed are of a decidedly rotten vintage that tastes like toxic waste. Perhaps they are the sonic equivalent of riding a Mad Max–fashioned motorcycle through the most desolate and crumbling cemetery you can find. Turn this up loud, let yourself see nothing while the city baby is attacked by rats, careening down life’s left-hand path. Stockholm does it again, and Harrowed’s The Eternal Hunger ensures that legend will continue to grow, with one foot in the grave of the past.
RIYL : Entombed, Autopsy, Deathstrike, Discharge, Motorhead
~TB