Nightmares Made Flesh - Bloodbath (2004)



Somewhere between 1999 and 2000 a collaboration was engaged by Mikael Akerfedlt also known as a guitarist from a famous band called Opeth, he started a the band alongside some of Sweden’s finest metal musicians. The original idea was just to play old-school brutal death-metal, most because of the fact that many of the members had their musical interests rooted in the more extremer metal genres. The main thought was to release an EP and it would be the end of the line, but the members thought otherwise and the little project grew into a much bigger project. This so-called ‘’supergroup’’ has released yet one EP (Breeding Death) and two studio albums (Resurrection Through Carnage and Nightmares Made Flesh). There has been a few changes during the line-ups, members swapping instruments and the brainchild himself left the band to continue with his finer band Opeth, but luckily there was one person who became a perfect replacement, the metal genius Peter Tagtgren from Hypocrisy. He replaced Mikael Akerfeldt and was responsible for the vocals on [i]Nightmares Made Flesh. You sometimes see other forms of supergroups emerging and sometimes you think that the line-up and the final product is or was completely crap and then you suddenly discover another supergroup that has a perfect blend of famous musicians, Bloodbath is one of those bands that has a perfect line-up with the best of the best.

In 2004 their second full-length album was released, the accomplishment was called Nightmares Made Flesh, an album that dug up the past from the old-school brutal death-era and played it with new influences and craftsmanship. This album delivers a deadly and heavy dose of unpleasant death-metal, all songs has great structures and musical engineering that creates a very good variety in the material. You both have fast songs like Stillborn Saviour and Bastard Son Of God, slow songs like Draped In Disease and Outnumbering The Day, some small doom-metal influences can be found in songs like Eaten and Blood Vortex. There are very few signs of melody here, since this is brutal death-metal melody should be out of the question but you can sense some melody in some of the songs, especially in some of the guitar solos and the lead work. Everything here has a great sound, nothing is too overwhelming, perhaps the bass might be a bit overshadowed by the thick guitars but the rest is totally flawless. Atmosphere is very present in this album, all the songs displays some kinds of unwelcome, eerie, haunting and mystical atmospheres. This factor creates life in the material, as a sign that the members really deliver precise and serious performances and not some sloppy or unenthusiastic nonsense.

Peter Tagtgren, he might not have incredible instrumental skills but he is definitely vocally talented nonetheless. He has the ability to sing almost anything, growls, screams, shrieks, chants, raspy or harsh vocals and clean vocals; these are some of his vocal register. Peter delivers some of his best vocals in this album, from the deepest beast growls to cutting black-metal shrieks and agonizing hollering. He definitely helps to create a brutal atmosphere with his respective vocal work. Anders Nystrom and Dan Svanö are also of the same calibre as Peter Tagtgren, these guitarists has also been included in lots of famous Swedish metal bands, they have even created projects where they are responsible for all the instruments and vocals. They are the two guitarists in this album and both of them makes high-quality performances, bone-crushing rhythms, cutting lead work, haunting solos and some unusual guitar breakdowns are also present here. The guitars have a massive sound which creates pure heaviness, one of the band’s triumph cards. Jonas Renkse is the bass player on this album, this bassist has been playing in famous bands as well, not to famous but Katatonia is one of them. Jonas actually stands out a bit in this album, he mostly follows the heavy guitars but he also jumps forth and delivers a few short bass solos. But he remains in the rhythm section and helps to create a steady wall of sound. Martin Axenrot, a drummer who has also performed with numerous of other bands, Opeth, Witchery and Satanic Slaughter to name some of the bands. Here you will find a varied drum performance, some death-bands tend to use a rather one-dimensional and un-changing style of drumming but Axenrot doesn’t. Ferocious blast beats and heavy double bass kicking are some of the main patterns that you will experience in this album, there are of course other style of drumming here, both fast, moderate and slow drumming. There are no signs that tell that the drumming is repetitive, every song has a different drum pattern that doesn’t mix up with other songs.

I’m pretty much surprised that I enjoyed this album as much as I did, but there was one thing that I thought didn’t suit the music so good. I can only find one bad thing in this album so I start with that, I thought that some of the guitar solos really didn’t fit some of the songs. Some guitar solos were trembling to much into Invocator territory, and that is a band that I have some negative experiences from. The solos felt too familiar with their style of soloing, lots of wailing and extended vibrato moments did not suit the brutal and devastating music. Other than that the album really lived up to what it is described to play, definitely a heavy and very brutal death-metal album. Everything was flawless, great production, innovative guitar work, tremendous vocal work; everything had something to add to the extreme, dark and brutal atmosphere.

I can recall that I found a few songs from this album and back then I thought: ‘’This was too brutal and extreme for my taste’’. But after six months or so the thought of getting the whole album just struck me, I got Nightmares Made Flesh and I really enjoyed it, it didn’t felt so brutal after all when I realized that Peter Tagtgren was the vocalist this time. But this is not an album that suits everybody, it is definitely not an album for the faint of heart, everything here shows no mercy. People who are dedicated followers of Peter Tagtgren and his work with Hypocrisy would probably enjoy this album because of his massive vocal performance. And judging by the gore and death based lyrics, people who like bands like Cannibal Corpse would also enjoy this album. Old-school death-metal fans that enjoys the legends of death-metal such as Obituary and or Deicide could have a look at this band and this here album.

Ultimate Instinct -Intestine Baalism (2008)



Where the fuck did this come from? One week I'm listening to An Anatomy of the Beast, wondering what Intestine Baalism was up to, and the next I'm hearing their new album came out two weeks ago. If you've never heard Intestine Baalism, you're an idiot. But otherwise, their sound is easily summarized by catchy, idiomatic and sometimes oxymoronic statements. Typically, they're pinpointed with some variation of “brutally melodic” and as contradictory as that may sound, when has anything the Japanese done made sense to the Western world? At this point in the review, I'm merely stalling. Intestine Baalism are far from the most complex of bands to describe and Ultimate Instinct falls right in line with their previous two. In fact it kind of mixes them.

Their first two albums fell into a very Swedish foundation: An Anatomy of the Beast brought some old school crunch and Banquet in the Darkness indulged in the sugary sweet sounds of Gothenburg. And while I'm alluding to cereal, you can put whatever flavour you want on a death metal album and it'll still be death metal. This is what Intestine Baalism thrives on. Even if Banquet in the Darkness did border on an early In Flames aesthetic, the overrated Swedes (that'd be In Flames) couldn't have put out such a solid album if they burnt Banquet in the Darkness and sharpied their names on it. And even so, Banquet in the Darkness was more Jester Race than Reroute to Remain; more “December Flower” than “Trigger”. It seasoned itself with melody; a spoonful of sugar, not a foot long pixie stick. It was Lucky Charms before you take the toasted oats out---a complete, balanced "breakfast". Take Ultimate Instinct as an Intestine Baalism refresher course. It solidifies their discography, reminding us of all their previous highs while smoothing out some of their lesser moments. As with their previous works, Ultimate Instinct has a very Swedish base, but it turns that base into a cauldron, a melting pot of extreme metal's finest sounds.

“Agony in the Stone Chamber” opens the album playing the part of an overly demonic Dismember. Littered with fluctuations between half-time and blastbeats, the opener's real highlight is the reintroduction of Seiji Kakuzaki's absolutely sickeningly disgusting growl. It's guttural, almost toxic sounding and most importantly it's filthy as fuck. “Cry for the Sun” is the overly melodic second track, and like Banquet in the Darkness' title track, it rules. Vocally, “Cry for the Sun” introduces the listener to Kakuzaki's blackened snarl, which is what Mayhem's Atilla might sound like if he wasn't such an overbearing, melodramatic queer. Basically, imagine an Atilla who didn't come off like an understudy for the lead role in a high school production of The Phantom of the Opera. “Cry for the Sun” is a highly accentuated track, this time breaking up the chaos with a semi-acoustic Latin groove that's followed by a shred-led reprise---a fucking awesome climax. “Longing for Birth” is the best song on the album. Though it starts off with an alarmingly slamtastic intro, the track mirrors “Agony in the Stone Chamber” with it's intent to mix contemporary brutality and vintage simplicity. The track's obvious highlight comes mid-way through in an evil groove that sounds eerily like an excerpt from Dismember's oft-underestimated Massive Killing Capacity. The groove is in some respects an anti-breakdown, aiming to ramp things up rather than break them down. From there, Intestine Baalism go on to flex their much-enhanced black metal muscles. Both “Awaking” and “Wind of Death” feature their fair share of tremolo picking, but neither track succumbs entirely to Norwegian Orthodoxy; the former blending the tinny tremolo picking with a low punch; the latter necrothrasing itself around bouts of solo-covered doom metal.

Ultimate Instinct's ultimate victory is its ability to sound so real, so authentic. It manages to blend elements of New York, Norway and Sweden into a natural, original sounding album. The band manages to solo without turning supererogatory, to sound evil without gimmickry. Most importantly, it combines the classic and the contemporary into a fun, digestible but far from disposable album. So now we have found the third piece in 2008's death metal triforce of eliteness, and hey, it's better late than never. Arghoslent and Dead Congregation, the final guest to your party has arrived.

obZen - Meshuggah (2008)



With obZen, Swedish metal mathematicians Meshuggah have delivered their best release this decade. This assertion stems from two definitive characteristics that give the album its identity. To begin, Tomas Haake is back behind the kit, a welcome return after the Drumkit from Hell-driven percussion heard on 2005's Catch Thirty-Three. While obZen may or may not win Album of the Year credentials at year's end, Haake's performance on this album is absolutely stunning and easily cements him as one of metal's finest drummers. Haake's triumphant return, while significant, is slightly overshadowed by Meshuggah fulfilling its affirmation that obZen is an amalgamation of their previous works. Prior to a significant release, most bands taunt listeners by claiming that they are taking their music in a new direction (and not changing a damn thing about it or completely alienating their fans with too drastic a change), but with these Swedes, they deliver on their promise while simultaneously introducing new songwriting ideas into their repertoire.

Throughout their existence, opinions on Meshuggah have been divisive: one listener's idea of repetitive, trite, and over-saturated noise may be another's consistent, complex, and technical aural assault. Of note, however, is the band's undeviating ability to evolve between each release, and obZen is no exception. The evolution found on this album can best be illustrated by Meshuggah's maturation in song arrangement and style. The trademark Meshuggah tenacity is omnipresent throughout the record - Jens Kidman's vocals are continually abrasive and menacing, guitarists Fredrik Thordendal, Mårten Hagström, and bassist Dick Lövgren are constantly delivering extremely heavy riffs (Lövgren's performance is particularly astonishing, and his bass resonates clearly throughout the album), and Tomas Haake is always being Tomas Haake (going absolutely insane) - but the composition of obZen's nine songs sounds more cohesive and fluid while retaining the polyrhythmic scaffolding that characterizes their past work. Where albums like the homogeneous Nothing or the scattered Chaosphere had bouts of choppy songwriting, obZen's entire runtime is very smooth and uniform. In introducing this more fluid structure of songwriting, it is important to note that Meshuggah's technical skill is still remarkably stunning, and their relentless, unparalleled sense of thrashy groove has not been eliminated completely. Additionally, obZen is arguably the band's most melodic release; at least, the most melodic since 1995's Destroy Erase Improve.

The track that is the ultimate manifestation of the above characteristics is the seven-minute Bleed. obZen's third track starts off with an absolutely killer intro, reminiscent of 2004's I, and Kidman's enraged vocals immediately follow with "Beams of fire sweep through my head / Thrusts of pain increasingly engaged / Sensory receptors succumb / I am no one now - only agony" resonating over Haake's frantic kicks and hits, complemented with a mechanized, runaway-freight-train guitar sound. Just past the song's halfway point, a short ambient period segues into one of the best Thordendal leads on the album; afterwards, the song rips open into another heavy passage that carries into the track's conclusion. As such, Bleed is arguably Meshuggah's best song to date. I am also a firm believer that an album's opening track officially sets the tone for the album, and Combustion does a memorable job in introducing the old-and-new Meshuggah sound that symbolizes obZen. Again, an aggressive Kidman delivers a dominating performance, guitarists Hagström and Thordendal absolutely shine, namely in the song's introduction and bridge, and Lövgren's rumbling, steadfast bass perfectly complements madman Haake's machine-gun bass-snare-cymbal onslaught.

Kidman's execution on obZen is noteworthy when delivering Haake's lyrics. As always, Meshuggah's lyricism pinpoints a fascination with human physiology and psychology. For example, the pineal gland excretes a hormone called melatonin, which regulates one's Circadian rhythm and is essentially the human body's timekeeper. Haake's lyrics on This Spiteful Snake and Electric Red are stellar as well. In the former, Haake symbolizes consciousness with a serpent ("Reality: this spiteful snake, rearing its ugly head / Venom dripping from its grin as it tosses yet another obstacle in our way / . . . Reality: this spiteful snake, shedding its smothering veil / A shroud to asphyxiate, exterminate, eradicate"); in the latter, an almost-Orwellian theme seeps into the track, as evidenced by lyrics such as "So meticulously machined into these obedient devices - puppets - fine-tuned submissive drones / Replicas of each other - clones - we're dormant accumulations of flesh in a crimson filtered twilight / Mute witnesses to the game / Wrenches to keep the bolts of lies tight." To match the technical and intense musicianship, Meshuggah's vocalist needs to be just as domineering and impassioned; in short, Kidman succeeds on all accounts.

In keeping with my claim that each of obZen's nine tracks has its own distinctiveness, it is crucial to point out the stamina of the album's two concluding tracks, the strong Pravus and the nearly-ten-minute epic Dancers to a Discordant System, as well as the title track. Pravus' intro is incredibly frenzied, characterized by a spastic opening guitar riff and a pulsating groove from the band's rhythm section. The shifts in tempo and tone throughout the track keeps the listener engaged, especially as the guitars reverberate and ring out between hard downstrokes and bellicose drumming. Both Pravus and its preceding track, Pineal Gland Optics, suggestively allude to Catch Thirty-Three, especially from a rhythm section and vocal standpoint. While Pravus loses some of the introduction's steam, obZen's closing track is a test of endurance: not for the listener, mind you, but for the Swedish quintet. "Dancers'" introduction, again reminiscent of Catch Thirty-Three's whispered vocals in that album's middle section, begins on a tranquil note, but as is the case with Meshuggah, placidity does not last long. While some of Meshuggah's longest songs throughout their discography have been trying listens, "Dancers" continually keeps the listener absorbed and interested through each movement. obZen, while more moderate in pace compared to the rest of the album, is still a refreshing listen.

What makes obZen such a phenomenal listen is not just Haake's long-awaited return behind a drum kit, as opposed to the programmed Drumkit from Hell percussion heard on 2005's Catch Thirty-Three, but the fact that Meshuggah hinted at each of its past works - especially Destroy Erase Improve, Nothing, and I - while simultaneously adding new and exciting elements to their core sound, is both amazing and important. The album's seemingly streamlined, fluid sound is an impeccable quality, even with the polyrhythmic structure that defines Meshuggah's sound, and obZen's songs flow into each other even better than the schisms that divided their 2005 LP while retaining their unique and distinct identities. Haake is a legendary drummer, and his steadfast execution only expounds his talent and cements his elite status in the metal community. As the principle lyricist, Haake's writing is typical Meshuggah fare, but nevertheless intriguing. Vocalist Jens Kidman is time and time again a model of consistency, and guitarists Thordendal (his tremendous leads and solos on obZen are some of his best to date) and Hagström (whose heavy riffs and downstrokes complement an assertive but never domineering Lövgren as the backbone of Meshuggah's sound) are spectacular as well. While some of the slower sections on this album are a bit burdensome to sit through, the listener is alleviated with the frequent transitions and explosions in sound. In all, obZen is a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging record, and is without a doubt, a contender for metal Album of the Year.

The Arrogance Of Ignorance - Oceans Of Sadness (2008)



Right, I like to go into everything with a cynical attitude. Call me a bastard or whatever, I don’t care, but as far as I see it, if you think it’s going to be crap, you can’t lose. Either it ends up being unsurprisingly bad or it actually ends up being good and surprising you. Plus it makes you automatically superior to all the hype whores who will jump on any bandwagon (which admittedly is about as big an achievement as remembering not to pick up the soap in prison…) Now, The Arrogance Of Ignorance was different for me. Oceans Of Sadness’s previous album, Mirror Palace, was pretty damn awesome. Sure, it had it’s problems (lack of structure in places, lost steam in places) but all in all it was one of those albums that was just all in all fun; so to be honest, when TAOI came about I had reasonably high expectations, but it did something I wasn’t quite expecting; it exceeded them.

Oceans Of Sadness’s (from now on to be shortened to Oceans') achievement on this album is not limited to any one thing, they’ve streamlined, improved and pushed their sound to the limits here. The band have gotten more serious on The Arrogance Of Ignorance (though they still retain some of the almost circus-like antics on Mirror Palace) and as a result the band have managed to make the album epic on a whole new scale, with songs like “Some Things Seem So Easy” and “In The End” building to breathtaking climaxes which the band have never quite managed to pull off so brilliantly before. This is the product of a band who know what they are doing and who have absolutely perfected their sound to the last tiny detail, and now they have this perfected they can focus on making every second an absolute joy for the listener.

With groovy riffs, eccentric keyboards and erratic vocals Oceans’ sound can be hard to describe. The band themselves don’t like to be labelled in any one category, and I’m not going to try. Imagine ARCTURUS meets OPETH with influences from almost everything else thrown in for good measure; previously, the band could sometimes overdo it, and the result would be songs that sometimes sounded over the top and hard to follow. They’ve successfully solved this though on TAOI, and now every song makes sense in it’s own way, of course the band haven’t toned down some of their more mental moments too much (“The Weakest Link” is a classic OOS song, featuring almost every aspect of their sound and more) but they’ve streamlined it and improved it to the point where you never get lost in the album. This was a necessary improvement from Mirror Palace, and when you add Tijs Vanneste’s improved and even more varied vocals to the mix the band comes off sounding more focused and professional than ever before.

Tijs’ vocals are more impressive than ever before, though his clean vocals are a perfect example of ‘love or hate’ (I’ve seen them be adored and abhorred on this very site!) his extreme vocals have improved from Mirror Palace, with black metal shrieks even finding their way into the album occasionally and low, booming growls taking the forefront in a lot of songs. On the subject of vocals, you also get Annlouice Loegdlund of Diablo Swing Orchestra fame showing off her vocals on the wonderful “Subconscious”; and also Johan Liiva lending his intense voice to a few magical moments on “In The End” (one of the most intense tracks Oceans’ have ever recorded), overall, Oceans’ have gone all out here, Tijs is unrestrained, guest vocalists are introduced and overall it is just a very pleasing listen vocal wise.

Despite the reasonably long time (just over fifty minutes) The Arrogance Of Ignorance never drags, there are enough moments of pure brilliance on the album to warrant listening to it all the way through. For people who heard Mirror Palace, their might be a few surprises here for you. “In The End”, for example, features one of the most aggressive and intense openings Oceans’ have ever written, and I’m not just talking about the guest vocalist; the whole atmosphere of that song is venomous. On the other end of the spectrum is “From Then On”, a wonderfully emotional ballad with some amazing vocal work from Tijs and some beautiful keyboard melodies towards the end. Oceans’ haven’t rested on their laurels with TAOI, they’ve tried new things (the black metal parts that pop up occasionally add a lot of spice and venom to the sound) and pulled them off effortlessly; while there are still a few songs that could’ve fitted in without a doubt on Mirror Palace, on the whole the album is a lot more dark, serious and epic (just wait until you hear the end of “Failure”, one of the most amazing moments in music I’ve heard this year) than it’s predecessor.

The Arrogance Of Ignorance scores high on all levels on an almost impossible level. It successfully streamlines Oceans’ sound while adding new things to it, it manages to be darker and more epic while still keeping the more fun elements from previous albums and they’ve managed to stay completely fresh while still being the same band; basically, they’re firing on all cylinders now, and you better hop on board or be blown out of the way.

Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here - Anaal Nathrakh (2007)



In Bob Fosse’s 1973 musical film Cabaret, there is a scene during the first night out between the two protagonists (or if you’ve seen the film, antagonists of a sort) Brian Roberts and Sally Bowles (played by Michael York and Liza Minnelli, respectively). They find themselves underneath a train station, and Sally calls Brian over to discuss with him the topic of a “primal scream” (as she refers to it). As the next train passes, Liza Minnelli lets out a wail that is frightening in several regards, one being that it’s perhaps the best example of the only believable and noteworthy performance she’ll ever give, but more importantly how evil it sounded; the anguish in her voice was surreal; in the best way possible, it exemplified both terror and power all at once. This is, I believe, the most fitting way to describe what Anaal Nathrakh seem to strive for, and most of all on their latest record, Hell Is Empty, and All the Devils Are Here.

Anaal Nathrakh make evil music. It’s their thing. However, what separates them from a lot of other black metal bands that try to be evil is the fact that they rely not on satanic and heretic lyrics (though they do have those) for their insidiousness, nor an extremely evil looking (funny looking) image; they use their instruments and a keen sense of composition to make an absolutely demonic sound. No ridiculous song names, no outlandish spikes, no laughably awful spoken word passages; just straight-up, to-the-point audible evil. As it is, Devils is a record of change for the band, and this can be seen in many regards; most of them are for the better, but the album is not without its flaws.

One of Anaal Nathrakh’s strongest points has always been their instrumental work more precisely, that of Irrumator’s guitarwork. In the past his riffs and lines have sparkled with creativity and style (as far as Black Metal is concerned). On Devils, he takes his work a step further. What may be seen as accessibility to some and diversity to others, Irrumator slows down quite a bit on Devils. Where previously almost every Anaal Nathrakh line and riff was blisteringly fast and face-meltingly brutal, Irrumator reduces the pace on many songs in Devils. This has many benefits, as older Anaal Nathrakh outings suffered considerably from repetition. The riffs on Devils are a mid-tempo black metal affair, and Irrumator utilizes several start-stop riffs and rhythms, to excellent effect. Other songs carry the trademark Anaal Nathrakh “play so fast your entrails spill out” structure, but not as prominently as before. However, many fans may see this change as a negative aspect, for this variance in speed gives the band’s sound a distinct similarity to a laughable band also from England, Cradle of Filth. However, what fans should keep in mind is, Cradle of Filth suck; Anaal Nathrakh does not. Regardless, the slower tempos will invariably bring negative complaints of some kind, even though the band has changed for the better.

In addition to the differentiation of guitar velocity, Irrumator has added even more solos than ever. What’s different about Irrumator’s solos from other bands, however, is that his fit the music he plays in perfectly. There’s no unnecessary wankery, no overbearing and exhausting shred; just short, spastic, perfectly fitting solos. Bands like Trivium and BFMV should take a soloing lesson from Irrumator, but that would imply that any of those kinds of bands had any talent at all. The riffs on here do one other notable thing differently, in that Irrumator has begun to utilize a slightly more “chug” tone than previously. Not to an extent where it becomes detracting from the music, but it’s still there, and people will inevitably complain about it. That aside, Devils has your standard, somewhat produced black metal guitar tone. It’s in the layering and the atmosphere that it shines. As is metal custom, the bass is completely inaudible, though it is safe to assume that it follows the guitar tracks since Irrumator writes all the bass parts as well.

Irrumator’s drum programming is of additional distinctive note, as well. I have no trouble saying that he is the most talented drum programmer in the metal business today. His work shows a perfect grasp of restraint and brutality all at once. Most of all, he has a knack for creating drum lines and rhythms on a machine that sound human. There is no hilarious ultra-beats like those on Mirrorthrone or Agoraphobic Nosebleed (although, in the latter’s case, it is acceptable), just solid double-bass work and the occasional blast beat utilization. If Vladimir Cochet and Irrumator made a project, it might be one of the best things to ever happen to metal.

Devils is an album with many differences as compared to their previous outings, and this is no more evident than in the vocal department. Where previously limited to your standard high pitched black metal wail and the occasional clean vocal section, Devils focuses more than ever on vocal prowess. The first difference noticeable is a low pitched scream that VITRIOL uses. Before, he had only done an occasional low, atonal electronic spoken word gurgle-like technique; with Devils, we see a side of him not yet revealed. He utilizes a very low, extremely insidious sounding scream. There is a small amount of electronic modification added to it (to make it sound more evil, and it works), but it’s not too evident. Keep in mind that it’s not a growl (a la Chris Barnes’ work), just a very deep scream; imagine if Tay Zonday (of Chocolate Rain fame) got shot in the foot and he let out a wail; it sounds akin to that, only even more evil (and awesome).

There are also changes to his clean vocals. Where previously they would be scattered around the record, they are now in almost every song. In addition, their tone has gone through a drastic overhaul; VITRIOL’s voice sounds more relaxed and natural now. He is much more easily understood, as his voice does not sound so strained as before. His cleans are in almost every chorus now, giving a slight operatic feel to the music (not a lot). Unmistakably, however, his cleans are extremely demonic sounds. He has a tendency to layer his low scream just under his clean vocals; enough so that if you listen for it, you can hear, but not in an overbearing manner. This adds a sinister edge to the choruses; while catchy and memorable, they are undeniably malevolent in nature.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Anaal Nathrakh’s sound, however, is their use of screaming. As I mentioned previously, this album encapsulates the concept of Liza Minnelli’s “Primal Scream”, and most especially in the manner in which they use screams. Scattered across the album are a variety of screams that have no meaning; they’re just screams. A lesser band might try this and fail miserably , but Anaal Nathrakh are no such lesser band. Their placement and execution of this unique ambient effect is flawless; there is never screaming where there shouldn’t be, and the tone is never obnoxious. I believe the band has also created the first instrumental track with vocals, in the sense that there’s screaming, but no words.

Anaal Nathrakh’s Hell Is Empty, and All the Devils Are Here may not be the most brutal record ever, and their sound is a lot less crazy than previously, but what they have created here is quite possibly the most wicked sounding record ever made.

Crimson - Edge Of Sanity (1996)



I’ll cut right to the chase, seeing as there is no point now for a needless into for a review such as this. Edge Of Sanity is one of those bands which everyone who has heard them respects for their willingness to go places not really explored within the bounds of their genre. It’s easy to call Edge Of Sanity a simple death/melodic death metal band previous to this release, stemming from their pure death metal roots with their debut Nothing But Death Remains up to their superb, melodic, and also melancholic Purgatory Afterglow. They play a variation of Swedish death metal virtually unseen before. Interesting. They composed a one track album when such a thing was relatively unknown and taboo. Also interesting. We’re not here to talk about that though, and I only bring it up to sort of set the stage for where Dan Swano and Edge Of Sanity were at circa 1996, the year they released their “classic” album, the 40 minute Swedish progressive death metal escapade known as Crimson.

It is true that, in many regards, what Crimson accomplished was nothing short of breathtaking and certainly was untraveled grounds for any band at the time. The album combined the harsh fury of death metal with the melodies of its Gothenburg counterpart and the progressive effect of such bands as their Swedish brethren Opeth. However, unlike any of these sole genres, Crimson is an amalgam of said influences mashed together into a single song, high attention demanding experiment which turned out to be the greatest achievement, or so is said, of the bands career. The centralized concept of the album is a story of post-apocalyptic humanity and the troubles that ensued, involving the daughter of a queen who was hailed as a gift from the heavens, toppling dominos throughout the surviving world and ultimately leading to uncontrollable chaos. The story itself is interesting enough, but suffers slightly from, in my personal views, a slightly overworked concept which seems to take itself way, way too seriously. Indeed, the lyrics are well written, a known talent of Edge Of Sanity, but everything appears to be too over-the-top, something which only slightly hinders the big picture.

Moving away from that, however, we find the topic of the music itself. It is indeed a marvel of musicianship and a rather fine display of songwriting, with each section (usually separated by a distinct bridge of some sort) providing an impressive display of riffs which are both heavy and melodic, but don’t quite contain that lasting power which some of the songs from their previous albums had (“Twilight”, anyone?). It is here where I find the mind-tearing question, are the riffs memorable enough to call this classic? At some points, this is certainly the case, with the riffs being strung back-to-back in ways I’ve never heard before. It’s interesting to see how Edge Of Sanity manages to create effective melodies while barely ever harmonizing the lead and rhythm guitars, which gives props to the musical mind of Swano and his band mates. It cannot go without saying though, that even though riffs are constantly changing literally throughout the entire forty minutes, I would really like to look back and pick a specific riff which struck me as awe-inspiring or downright mesmerizing, but sadly I cannot.

The way that Crimson shifts paces is quite remarkable. It is nearly flawless in its execution of going from full-out death metal passages to a clean acoustic interlude without the listener even thinking about the transition. This applies to the vocal performance of our mastermind Dan Swano and the all-too-well known Opeth front man Mikael Akerfeldt, who provides guest vocals and guitars on the album. The vocals change from Edge Of Sanity’s typical grunts and growls to clean singing to ominous drones throughout the run time, which often works well despite some flaws with the clean vocals. While the death metal growls are, as always, superb beyond reason, the clean singing is flat, almost pretentious, and simply tires way too hard to sound melodramatic and sorrowful at points, yet comes across as something just above tolerable. Worry not, however, since the singing makes up a (comparably) small part of the vocal performance, with the terrific growls at the forefront sweeping the show away and elevating this album to that of Edge Of Sanity’s best (in terms of growled vocals) performance.

Between solos, acoustic bridges, intense and dark moments of glory, Crimson manages to both captivate the listener and thrust them away with moments of simple but lasting confusion. The forty minutes is not out of the question for most metal fans, especially those such as me who appreciate long songs which have a lasting meaning, but this also means that the listener simply must sit down and listen to the entire album. This isn’t one of those longer songs which you can pause for a few minutes, go attend to something, and come back and finish. No, this is a composition which takes your full and unquestionably undivided attention to take in, something which very few of us can do in this day and age. That said, though, it is a rewarding listen if you do take the time to open your mind and take in what Edge Of Sanity is attempting to get across. The album, especially toward it’s latter portions, tends to slow down tremendously and concentrate more on atmosphere and expression than the first three-quarters, which is more or less aimed at assaulting the listener with more riffs than most bands have on two full length LP’s, which is why the back portion of the disc garners the most praise from me, since a thick atmosphere is something I enjoy more than anything.

Crimson is work of progressive death metal extremes. On the one hand, we have the simply astounding barrage of heaviness which hits the listener like a truck upon first listen, layered by just the opposite, calming (but equally progressive) moments of bliss which make this album as good as I believe it to be. Without these atmospheric touches, Crimson would amount to little more than a decent, lengthy extension to Purgatory Afterglow. However, this is not how things turned out. Interestingly enough, when all is said and done, the listener leaves with a sense of accomplishment after listening to what Edge Of Sanity expresses here. It’s production is crisp and clean, especially for 1996, it’s ideas certainly new to the genre, and it’s execution nearly flawless. The untold amount of positives to the album overshadow the few, but noticeable, shortcomings with astounding vigor, leaving you with nothing but good things to say in the end about what Crimson is and what it did for Edge Of Sanity as a band, and what it did for progressive death metal as a genre. An enjoyable listen? Most definitely. A leap forward for all of Swedish death metal? Certainly. A classic? Not quite there.

Alloy - Skepticism (2008)





While being credited as one of the pioneers of funeral doom, the release of their fourth full length Alloy simply proves that after nearly 20 years Skepticism are as solid as ever. An unchanging lineup greatly contributes to the stability surrounding the band, and each of their albums has been a furthered cultivation of their sound. Like a good bottle of wine, ageing has merely refined and matured the band; as good as they were back in 1995, they’ve consistently outdone themselves and Alloy is no exception. Richly textured and void of any repetition, the album has a profound sense of flow and finesse; the band’s attention to detail is remarkable, and every moment of the album is geared towards saturating you in atmosphere.

Beginning with ‘The Arrival’, Alloy wastes no time in completely enveloping the listener. Skepticism seem to have an unrivalled talent in creating organic and dynamic soundscapes; Alloy does not deviate far from this tried and tested formula, and even betters it in regard to the band’s previous efforts. The organ work plays a pivotal role in creating said soundscapes, and set Skepticism aside from most other funeral doom. Ignoring the fact that the majority of bands in this genre are mediocre, only a select few are able to use keyboards or organs this extensively and pull it off without coming off as lame or pretentious. However, unlike a band such as Consummatum Est, the organ lines do not overshadow everything else. The album is very noticeably balanced, with a somewhat perfectly proportionate distance between the vocals and the separate instruments. Alloy rarely digresses from this established sound, but this is not to say that it repeats itself. A plethora of variant moods and tones are evident throughout the album’s 47 minute length, and not a single one goes askew. The track ‘Antimony’ begins with an interesting organ line, somewhat allusive to a Transylvanian/Count Dracula image, and then works this organ line into the song in a subtle and articulate manner. The first half of ‘Antimony’ is a rather dark part of the album, and conceptualizes the idea of a ‘villain’ through both its heavier moments and its seemingly malevolent softer moments.

Aside from the already established darkness the album exudes, the album remains noticeably melodic. Instances of controlled chaos or dissonance are apparent, but the album revels in its surge, flowing without any absence of eloquence. Atmosphere is everything in a genre which is based around slower tempos, and whether it is from a distinctive attempt at creating a penetrating soundscape, or simply a focus on the interplay between the musical variables, actually making out the various parts of the music are essential in truly grasping their effect. Good production is not a necessity, but it needs to be done cleverly in order to fulfill the aforementioned point. In this respect, Skepticism have not only done a clever job of the production on Alloy, but it’s also one of the best produced doom albums I’ve ever heard. As already mentioned, the collusion between the organs and the guitars is done in such a way that it not only allows for both instruments to leave their mark, but unites them both in an imbuing and dense wall of sound. This gives the album even more room to diversify, allowing the two respective driving forces of the album to occasionally separate. Moments towards the beginning of ‘Pendulum’ are a good example of this, where the organs provide the melody and the guitars are nothing short of crushing.

Vocally, Alloy is just sublime. Various levels of gutturals simply meld with the album’s ambience, and whether it be a dual effect of growls and despondent shouts as seen on ‘The Curtain’, or spoken word as seen on ‘March October’, the vocals are very much in line with the tonality of the album; the vocals, like almost everything else, fit perfectly in accordance with the album’s mood and structure. Songwriting this involved is a rarity, and Skepticism have to be commended for their ability to make everything sound so natural and genuine. There are no breaks, no flaws, absolutely nothing that diminishes the grandeur of the album; Alloy is a majestic sojourn into wistfulness, appropriating a vast magnitude of emotions.

A good word that can be used to describe Alloy would be ‘colossal’. Whether it be a far reaching melody, an uplifting mood, or an overwhelmingly thick thrust of heaviness, it is safe to say that Skepticism have done absolutely everything right with this album. The pensive moments coincide in perfect assonance with the heightened tempos, the effect of the organ gives the album an unprecedented fluidity, the vocals contribute to said fluidity all while personifying the album and giving it a character, a complexion, a personality. Alloy is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year, if not ever. It shatters any preconceived notions of a ‘good’ doom album, and yet again raises the benchmark to which all doom albums, or even all metal albums, should be pushing. Highly recommended.

From the new album Silhouettes, here's the official video for Awake by Textures. Awesome Dutch Melodic Death/Math Metal band. And I quite like the simplicity of the video which does a great job of catching the imagery of the song. Basically, this song is about a man who dies and regrets leaving many things undone. The black and white format signifies sadness, the river signifies death and the dog signifies anger/frustration. Anyway, enough babbling, enjoy the video!

The Latter Rain - In Vain (2007)



There is a point in some bands careers where I feel that they truly pass by any genre foundations. Opeth reached it straight away, Edge of Sanity reached it with Crimson, Disillusion reached it with Back To Times of Splendor and In Vain have reached it with The Latter Rain. To reach this point (at least in my mind) said bands don’t need to be crazily articulate or madly random, no, they just need to really have their own style, their own sound and their own way of going about things. They just have to be unique in their execution, this is something I feel In Vain are, unique.

In Vain have a lot of different things that they can do well, they can be very aggressive, very melancholic, sort of jazzy and mental and also pretty damn exciting at times. It is this variation within their sound which gives them a good, unique strength, as they are not afraid of experimenting at this early stage in their career. Despite this experimentation though, they still manage to retain a good cohesion throughout The Latter Rain, things never seem forced or over the top, it’s all just a part of In Vain’s sound.

Now, enough about why they are good. What are they? That’s where this gets a bit tricky. The band themselves are very avant-garde and progressive, with lots of different influences, but what is probably at the core of this is a very heavy and crunchy death metal approach. It’s the other influences, the huge melodic guitar leads, the doomy song structures and the sometimes jazzy sections, that turn it into something entirely different and more unique than your usual stuff. I could pick out any song from The Latter Rain and describe how it is completely different from the next, as on the album you can expect to find anything from gothic keyboards and melodic guitar leads (In The Midnight Hour) through to heavy and grungy riffs complimented by violins (The Titan), once again I can’t stress enough how important this sort of variation is for any band. It keeps the listener interested and on their toes, eager to hear what next comes out of the album.

This dissimilarity in every song doesn’t just come in different tracks through the album, no, the actual songs themselves are varied and interesting throughout. With the average track length coming in at about seven minutes, In Vain don’t try to throw too many ideas into a single track, but still manage to include very diverse elements into different tracks. Take for example album opener The Midnight Hour (I’m discounting the useless intro), starting with a very gothic metal atmosphere and good growling vocals, it actually goes through the motions somewhat simplistically for the first two minutes before beginning to get more varied and interesting. After the beginning it eventually begins to introduce haunting spoken word sections, technical and memorable guitar riffs (very reminiscent to Crimson era Edge of Sanity) and Viking metal-esq chanting. The band manage to end it on a huge climax, introducing clean sung vocals used in the context of the death metal riffing and gothic keyboards used before: “In the midnight hour / The moment it all will come down / The earth will roar and its people will tremble”

After this you might expect something similar from the next track, but what you get is something completely different in Det Raknar. Beginning with some very funky and ‘happy’ sounding keyboards, it eventually breaks down into a very furious and aggressive black metal assault, with simply amazing tortured vocals that are both screamed and shouted with the utmost intensity. The vocals on this track are simply astounding, with frantic screaming, shouting and deep guttural growling contrasting that brilliantly, it doesn’t let up until about two and a half minutes in, where clean vocals are suddenly thrown into the mix, as well as a much bigger emphasis on melody.

As you can see by my descriptions here (which I got a bit carried away with) the album can be very surprising at first, but also very inviting. I know that after my first listen I couldn’t wait to hear it again and analyze it in greater detail. Already at such an early stage in their career In Vain seem to have struck just the right balance between accessibility and being unique. While the band are very avant-garde, they also have some amazingly memorable parts in their songs, so that they slowly manage to work their way into your sub consciousness, further listens just cement their place in their more.

While the album is hugely consistent as a whole, that isn’t to say that there aren’t stand out tracks. As I Wither blew me away so easily that I felt somewhat dirty afterwards, while October’s Monody is just a huge example of how to make an epic and simply fantastic song last for six minutes while being utterly varied and ever-changing. I actually don’t want to go into too much detail with the songs for you, as that would ruin the surprise, but what I can definitely say is that there is a little something for everyone in this album. Be it excellent riffs, furious and contrasting vocals, jazzy style or just variation within a style, it’s all there.

So, how do you best sum up an album like this? I could go on about these guys for ages, but that wouldn’t truly be necessary when they speak so much for themselves. For a debut album, The Latter Rain is a showcase of something truly brilliant, with accomplished performances from every musician involved. If you like unique, avant-garde and thoroughly entertaining metal, then this is a release you simply cannot pass up. It’s that good.

“Every tear in our eyes will be wiped away / There will be no more death, no mourning / The old order of things will perish / The soul is quiet, the world is empty”

The Shrouded Divine - In Mourning (2008)



Comparisons can be a bitch. Especially for a band like In Mourning, who bear a certain resemblance to a little known band called Opeth. There are plenty of Opeth clones out there, surely these guys are just another one, right? Wrong. Sure, the vocalist sounds a hell of a lot like Akerfeldt, and sure, there is a huge prog rock influence in their otherwise melodic death metal sound, but these guys are another breed of the progressive death metal style that you might be used to. Placing less emphasis on the soft to loud dynamics and instead using their progressive melodies amongst the heavy death metal riffing and keeping the intensity going, often, it provides a very unusual sensation, where the growls of the lead singer mould over the mid-tempo prog melodies, but my god, these guys know how to pull it off well, and what could have been a recipe for disaster has turned out to be a stunning formula.

Beginning with a powerful doom metal riff, one might be thrown into the assumption that this is a doom metal album. But as soon as the first of many progressive melodies begins to entwine with the more up-tempo drumming, you know that all early predictions of how this album might sound should be thrown out of the window. This is like nothing you have ever heard before. The opening (and title) track perfectly begins the album, both showing the band’s capability to craft long, interesting compositions and their ability to write groovy and progressive melodies. What starts out simple, eventually manifests into a complex and intriguing seven minute mini-epic ending with a surprising acoustic section that will certainly have you thinking of Opeth.

So, fronted by the multi-dimensional vocalist (more on him later) and the dynamic attack of the three (count them up) guitarists, In Mourning already have an exciting and unique sound that for once actually tries to breathe new life into the somewhat stale death metal genre that has had the same sound recycled over and over again. It is nice to see that there are still some artists out there who don’t want to follow the accepted formula. The drumming is good, if unspectacular, and the bass is loud enough in the mix to really have an impact.

With so much going on in there music, so many different melodies and ideas, you might expect it to be a great album but with little memorably, and once again, your assumptions would be wrong. In Mourning have a knack of writing an amazing chorus, one that will stay in your head long after you hear it, the most notable being on ‘In The Failing Hour’, which excels in it’s simplicity. It is the second shortest and most direct song of the album, which at first seems to be trailing off into mediocrity, but as soon as the chorus kicks in and Tobias starts screaming his heart out, you can just feel that this band have something special, and all of this is in their debut.

This is my confession, my lament to you, It‘s me, I‘ve painted the walls, it‘s a portrait, of a black parasite, from this day on, I would look at life with my eyes closed.

Looking back at the opener, you would probably expect In Mourning to utilise the clean vocals a lot more than they actually do. In fact, very rarely do you hear them, once on the opener, the amazingly emotional interlude in ‘By Others Considered’ (lyrics above), and briefly in the eight-minute epic of the album, ‘The Black Lodge’. When you analyze the album, it’s hard to see why, as they suit the bleak atmosphere a lot of the songs are going for, and yes, Tobias’ screams and growls are brilliant, but his clean vocals, too, are very good, and could be used more. Still though, it’s hard to complain about the vocals at all on this release, from the demonic growling which is eerily reminiscent of Akerfeldt of Opeth, to the fantastic screams, which might sound like Stanne of Dark Tranquillity if he really went all out. The comparisons with the screams brings us onto another band that In Mourning seem to have taken a few little things from (notice how they take after the best of the best). Upon first hearing, I actually mistook the third guitar for a keyboard, but even though the band don’t use keyboards, the way they use the third guitarist is similar to how Dark Tranquillity use their keyboardist, providing another layer to the sound, and most of the time the progressive melodies that are so memorable, take one listen to ‘The Art of a Mourning Kind’, with it’s menacing vocals and huge chorus, and then listen to something of the early-era Dark Tranquillity, and you’ll notice a few subtle similarities, though In Mourning presents them in a completely stylistically different way.

In Mourning somehow manage to keep their formula fresh throughout the album, and each of their songs is memorable for completely different reasons. ‘In The Failing Hour’ for it’s emotional and thoroughly brilliant chorus, ‘By Others Considered’ for the beautiful melodic interlude that somehow weaves it’s way into the song, ‘The Art of a Mourning Kind’ impresses with it’s menacing atmosphere and ‘The Black Lodge’ shines with it’s inventive and melodic riff structure. Indeed, all of these songs are brilliant in their own right, but ‘The Black Lodge’ is really exceptional. Beginning with a somber but powerful riff with the drums galloping beside them, it gets more complex before slowing down, settling into a powerful mid-tempo groove. Soon, Tobias comes in with his guttural growling, and then it goes back into the beautiful melody that was played at the beginning of the song and… well, you just need to hear it, the lyrics are beautiful (if somewhat odd) and the guitars play a completely prog-rock melody that is contrasted wonderfully by the tormented screams and growls of the vocalist. ’She approaches through the water…’ The lyrics could be considered cheesy, but the way the vocalist delivers them is anything but, full of emotion and pain, and when he starts with his tormented clean vocals, you need to just sit back and take a deep breath.

There are quite a few solo’s on the album, though they don’t appear on every song, and each one is a welcome surprise when it pops up, so if like me, you think that a good solo can do wonders for a song, you will find nothing to complain about here as they are placed in just the right moments and played at the perfect tempo to fit wherever they are. But these are not important to In Mourning’s sound, no, they are a band that try to create emotion instead of technicality, and in doing so they create a vivid, if unusual atmosphere for a metal album. The atmosphere would remind more so of say, maudlin of the Well than your typical metal band (though don’t think that these bands sound similar, but they create the same dreamlike atmosphere)

In short, In Mourning are something different, something unique, and they sound damn good too. The Shrouded Divine is an album that both impresses on first listen, and then continues to develop and improve on further listens, on the first listen, you will enjoy the album for it’s melodies, the memorable chorus’, the exceptional performance from the vocalist. But only after further listen will you notice several subtleties in the album, the way that you can often just hear a progressive melody playing underneath what you first though was a simple death metal riff, or the way that the bass will often play off of the guitars, instead of intertwining with them as what you might expect. Simply put, this is both enjoyable at first and then rewarding later, something which you won’t often find in an album.

Sure, it isn‘t perfect, but being as this is the band‘s debut album, and the fact that they play something so unusual, that can be easily forgiven, the good easily outweighs the few, tiny flaws that you can find with the album (and I‘ll be damned if you can find more than a few anyway). So, is this the album of the year? Doubtable. But as far as progressive death metal goes, well, let‘s just say that Opeth for once have something amazing to beat.