Kadavar’s unruly corpses are giving me life as the ghoulish world full of idiotic mutants around me never stops pointing towards the divisive annihilation of the human race. These Swedish bearded low-level wizards have always carried with them the spirit of ‘Sabotage’, but previous recordings were produced without the appropriate low-end. The punch was always in the memorable songwriting, kicking drums and wailing vocals. Here on their fifth album they’ve atoned for the lazy sin that was ‘Berlin’ with a huge honking bass tone that is the ultimate rapture to  my ears. I never had true faith in Kadavar to be honest; they seemed like a cheap retro gimmick capable of some fancy boogie-ass tunes and I truly wasn’t expecting ‘Rough Times’ to be amazing. It is.

Whatever doom-fed stoner metal witch cauldron they’ve channeled here reveals bright, smirking choruses, clanging bass-throbbers and 70’s pop-metal swagger for days. Must hear tracks like ‘Die Baby Die’ (you must see the music video!) and ‘Tribulation Nation’ have the irony of ABBA-induced Ghost with half of the cartoonish Satanism and ten times the guitar fuzz. The singles will stick between your ears but the lyrics will drive you insane; from the ironic to the world-reaching Kadavar finally have something to say worth singing along to.

For all of the retro-silliness that comes from Germany more often than not the bands that blow up are barely worth the trouble; but Kadavar are slowly elevating themselves above trend and their songwriting talent truly shines on this fourth record. Who knew what I really needed in this day and age was a throwback to rock music that actually rocks, and wasn’t mired in overly produced gloom and narcissistic self-love? It sure as hell isn’t modern heavy metal but it should make 70’s Sabbath fans, stoner rock-heads and anyone with a pulse very happy.

Kadaverized. 4.0/5.0