Without mercy or compassion it smashed its weapon deep and hard into your flesh. Pumping your blood through its sharp needle, the beastie laughs with pleasure, an annoying, buzzing sound. Soon… it thinks. Soon I will be healthy and strong enough to spawn thousands of shiny eggs!
You feel an itching in your neck and decide to deal with it the hard way. Without second though you smash the bug to bits, shattering its dreams and crushing its life.

Laethora is a death metal band from Gothenburg (Sweden) that was formed in 2005 by Dark Tranquility quitarist Niklas Sundin. Laethora now has released its debut album, `March of the Parasite`.

Well, that is something you wouldn’t aspect to hear when looking at the albums cover art (drawn by guitarist Niklas Sundin). The pretty brutal death metal contrasts heavily with the artistic Jugendstil-like puppet, balancing on a vine with butterflies buzzing around it.

Starting out at full speed, the well produced death metal soon slows down, caused by increasing doom metal parts. In the fifth song clean vocals are used, bringing gothic elements to mind (probably added by the three members from gothic band The Provenance, though I don’t know that band at all).
The complex, layered song structures undermines brutality, but still the album is fast and intense. Atmosphere is created by guitar picking, weird insect sounds, spoken samples, etcetera.
Though my first listen to the first song sure made me curious, the music is overall slow and lacks brutality. Listeners to slower, atmospheric and melodic death metal should give this one a try.