LIK - Misanthropic Breed CD

Sweden has long been held in high regard as one of the hotbeds of global Death Metal.  With their third full-length, Stockholm’s LIK only add fuel to this fire.  “The title of the record is Misanthropic Breed, because it describes the world today and the generations that are emerging,” states vocalist/guitarist Tomas Åkvik.  “In a way it's more applicable than ever with the quote ‘It's every man for himself’ being so suitable, and it’s also a ‘hidden’ homage to both Dismember and Entombed.”  “The feeling of Misanthropic Breed is that it goes from sometimes very melodic stuff to very dark and eerie landscapes.  We still have the ‘Iron Maiden’ feeling but I think it’s a lot darker at times.  Sound-wise it’s more brutal but still very clear and you can hear what’s going on almost all the time, and the songs have a more mature feeling and are more straightforward.”

Far darker in tone and with fewer jokes than included on their previous releases, when it came to lyrical subject matter, the band were influenced partially by movies and books, but most of their inspiration came from looking back at their own catalogue. “The songs are inspired by older Lik songs, and where we could take a new direction from that. Of course there are other bands that we love involved as well, but for example, ‘Female Fatal to the Flesh’ is an evolved take on ‘The Deranged’ from Carnage mixed with ‘Skin Necrosis’ from ‘Mass Funeral Evocation‘ (2015) while ‘The Weird’ is an even more brutal ‘Ghoul’ from the same record. Then there’s ‘Corrosive Survival’, which was inspired by the disaster of Chernobyl, and ‘Morbid Fascination’ is like a Metallica/Entombed/Dismember track which turned out really cool. I think the main inspiration is still drawn from old school Death Metal, which we think is how Death Metal should be played.”