‘De utan skuld, Är de första som dör, De utan talan, Som ingen ser eller hör, Oskyldiga begravs, Och ingen ställs till svars’ (Oskuldsfulla Gravar) / ‘Those without guilt are the first to die, those without a voice, whom no one sees or hears, The innocent are buried, and no one is held to account’ (Innocent Graves)

Persona Non Grata is the seventh album from Stockholm’s Svaveldioxid.  By this stage in a band’s evolution, you would be forgiven if you began to expect a plateauing in a band’s vehemency.  Yet, if anything, the very opposite is true here.  This is not to imply a startling experimental turn, but rather to recognise a band who are now utterly inhabiting their sound.

The album builds remorselessly on their recent split EPs Destruct and War//Plague, with every aspect feeling fiercely honed and ruthlessly locked in.  The band’s trademark downtuned buzzsaw riffage is, almost unbelievably, filthier and crunchier than ever and propelled by a relentless d-beat fuelled rhythm section.  Meanwhile, the barked, echo shrouded vocals confront a world that turns a blind eye with equal complicity to entrenched economic exploitation and murderous militarised violence.

If you have ever mulled the question – ‘What would Unbroken in Swedish käng mode sound like?’ – the mournfully savage opener, Samhallets Kedjör (Society’s Chains) will answer your musings in compelling style.  The skittering melodies that flare during Död Planet (Dead Planet) and Scener Ur Kriget (Scenes from the War) inject a dissonant virtuosity to the onslaught, before Änkors Sorg (Widow’s Grief) brings its merciless stomp and searing solo to bear.