There’s something strangely comforting about seeing the Sterbhaus name pop up again. Like bumping into an old friend who used to get you into trouble, disappeared without explanation, and now shows up at your door with a half-finished bottle and some questionable stories. A decade is a long damn time, but apparently it didn’t dull them - if anything it just sharpened the sarcasm and made the music leaner in that “we’ve had enough of everyone’s bullshit” way.
The funny thing is, Next Akin to Chaos doesn’t sound like a band trying to “return” or reclaim anything. No chest-thumping comeback theatrics here. It’s more like they simply kept walking after everyone thought they’d stopped, and this album is what fell out of their pockets along the way. It’s still that strange metal stew only Sterbhaus cooks: thrash bones, death metal teeth, black metal shadow, heavy metal bravado, and the odd proggy twitch like a nerve that refuses to die. It shouldn’t make sense but it somehow does, just like before.
Marcus sounds… older? Sure. But older in the good way. A bit more sandpaper in the throat, a bit more “I’ve seen the inside of too many backstage closets and none of them were worth it.” Jimmy’s riffs slice one moment and swagger the next, and Röjås hits the drums like he’s settling old debts. There’s an ease to it. A crooked groove. A “don’t worry, we know exactly what we’re doing” confidence even when they’re barking mad.
The album isn’t spotless - thank the gods of the gods. There are a couple parts where the band seems to just drift off chasing some internal joke only they’re in on. A passage or two where you think “alright lads, reel it back,” but then they don’t and somehow that becomes part of the charm. The whole thing is unmistakably Sterbhaus: melodic without being soft, complex without showing off, pissed off but in a way that feels like they’re laughing at the stupidity of it all.
If I had to slap a number on it - because apparently people still like their art shrink-wrapped into digits - it’s sitting somewhere in that solid 4 out of 5. Not world domination material, but easily one of the better, smarter, more characterful metal releases to sludge its way out of Sweden lately. And certainly far more alive than anyone expected from a band the world had already half-buried.
Whether this is their last word or the prelude to more chaos, who knows. Sterbhaus have always moved sideways through their own history. For now, this is a damn good reminder that they’re still very capable of lighting the place up when they feel like it.
https://www.instagram.com/sterbhausofficial/
Thanks to Grand Sounds PR.
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