Craft - Terror Propaganda (2002)

Terror Propaganda is another of the early Craft records which has so many similarities to the earlier post-Soulside Journey Darkthrone material, back when those Norsemen were first exploring black metal, that it's not hard to understand why some were calling it a knockoff. But when you dig beneath just the surface impressions I think there's plenty going on here to enjoy...are they paying tribute to their more established peers? Absolutely. The black/white cover with the pose (but hey no fire breathing!). The entirely colorless, nihilistic lyrics and pure malevolence created through the riff progressions and vocals. The first song here is even titled "Ablaze". But it's a damn GOOD tribute, is the thing, and never tries to hide it, and in exploring this sound, once again develops a few ideas of its own that make it eminently re-listenable.

They did drop a bit of that Hellhammer influence here, especially in the guitar tone. Some of the slower, oozier riffs have disappeared, although not entirely, and you'll recognize it in songs like "Reaktor 4". In fact, much of the material here is still mid-pace cruise mode, but that's also where they come up with a lot of their darker guitar patterns ("The Silence Thereafter"). The tremolo picking guitars have evolved from the debut, and more confidently take the lead on some of the tunes, but they've also got some layers of atmospherics or melodies that will appear at the edge of perception to elevate the material. Some would say that the Hellhammer bits have transformed into the 'black & roll' school of riffing, and that's true, but once again one of my favorite parts of the recording, for example in "Hidden Under the Skin" these bad ass guitars balance out nicely against the more wistful melancholy of the licks in the mid-paced blasting sequence. And "False Orders Begone" is an amazing use of that Hellhammer vibe into something that feels fresh with Mikael's nasty vocals slathered all over it.

They still use some of the crazy screams here, and they feel more bloody and fresh-killed than on the debut, adding more depth to the heights. I would say that the overall structure of the album is slower, but they never become boring, always exploring some ideas to flesh out the compositions which are usually only 3-5 minutes to begin with. The drums are tinny and efficient as was popular for this necro niche of black metal, but I didn't notice a lot of bass presence throughout, it's certainly taking more of a back seat than Total Soul Rape, but not absent. We've still not hit the peak of the Craft yet, and this one isn't quite so diabolically fun as the debut, but I'd say musically it's one I place just a stride beyond that. It's a little colder, more atmospheric, and numbing, but still has tasteful evil melodic licks and dark, powerful grooves.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (We are messengers)

https://www.facebook.com/craftblackmetal

Deströyer 666 - Cold Steel...for an Iron Age (2002)

Cold Steel... was an interesting album because it almost does a 180 spin back from the polished Phoenix Rising back to the more feral appeals of the Violence EP. The cover art is quite primitive and forgettable (and don't get me wrong, I much prefer the black white artwork on the reissue). The production is a little more raw and searing, although not in a bad way whatsoever, because the musicianship and songwriting are still on the save level of the previous album, and for my money, there's a lot more personality here. Regardless of whatever tweaks the band has made to its musical formula throughout the decades, and whichever of its fundamental styles becomes the focus, K.K. Warslut and Deströyer 666 are full on-board the underground.

This record is great. I liked the two before it well enough, but this one just has a certain pulse of charming vitriol coursing throughout it that draws me in. Warslut's vocals are definitely more natural and devilish, with a little more versatility than on Phoenix, perhaps they've leaned a little more into the carnal, traditional black metal rasp, but something about them appeals, and I'm saying that even after praising how well-implemented they were the last time out. The writing here is definitely black with little threads of speed and thrash metal running through it, a portent of later records for sure, but also tying them back to the beginning. The guitar tone here is more incendiary and ear-piercing, but you still have a fine balance with lots of the tremolo-picking and melodies and then those thicker walls of Bathory chords wrestling with the attention beneath. You get a couple little licks that remind me of stuff like vintage Slayer, but there's also a lot of material where the Marduk blast-fests take off ("Sons of Perdition").

Similar to Phoenix Rising, I feel like the deeper you go into the track list, the more interesting and atmospheric the material becomes, so a lot of my favored tunes like "The Calling" and "Witch Hunter" thrive back there. You definitely want to track down a reissued version, not only for the superior cover artwork but also a couple extra tunes like "The Dragon" that fit right in and are also pretty good. Some of the production and riffing here serves as yet another foreshadow to Wildfire (I'll explain why that is important to me later), and while it's not as clear and technically proficient sounding as the album before it, I'll take the more sinister sincerity of this one just because it's more memorable and resonant. In fact, this might be the first album where I went past 'liking' the band's output to actively being more interested in following them.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Doldrum - The Knocking, or the Story of the Sound That Preceded Their Disappearance (2022)

The Knocking... is one of their rare, anomalous records that comes around and completely eradicates you, and then has you begging the question: why it wasn't more popular? Even a couple years later, I am baffled that this one hasn't stuck with more listeners. Perhaps it's just too obscure, wasn't advertised much, released in a limited batch of vinyl or cassettes, no CD (to my dismay). The alternative would be to believe that folks weren't interested in a brilliantly horror themed progressive black metal opus which rewards through repeated listens, and that is a thought I am just not willing to bear. A few members of this project were also in the band Gallows, which put out an awesome record in 66 Black Wings, with a more traditional, straightforward black metal style, but Doldrum is far more ambitious and interesting.

I'd describe this as sounding like a mix of late 90s/early 00s Opeth and modern, progressive Enslaved aesthetics, but it doesn't sound quite the same as either. I was also reminded of Spain's Foscor for some reason; I daresay, even a little modern Chewy-era Voivod finds its way in, or Norway's Virus. It's got well-defined rhythms that make full use of the percussion and bass, both of which are brilliantly executed through the album, and then covers those up with dissonant, creepy guitar chords and an excellent, rasped vocal to deliver a chilling and memorable experience that never gets tiring even after the 50th spin or so. The lyrics are poetic, sad and incredible, spinning a tale of 1800s American folk horror that feels refreshing and unique amidst all the usual haunted houses, zombies and vampires. It's all told in five tracks ranging from 5-9 minutes, totally under 40 minutes, never wearing out its welcome and incorporating quite a lot of range within that timespan. The Knocking... is bristling with riffs to die for, textured and immersive and fully supported by the rhythm instruments which are every measure as important. The keys and acoustics are also tasteful and non-intrusive to the central, pulsing black metal aesthetics.

I think this might have even been recorded in Salem, MA at the Gallows Hill studios, which gives me a bit of a personal connection as I met my wife there and used to live with her a few years, well before this thing came out but I always marvel at the music that comes out of the place. Largely through Kurt Ballou's God City studios, yes, but it's cool to know there are other venues. But if I'm being honest, this might be my favorite metal or 'heavy' album ever recorded in that city, it's stunning. This shit slays, and though I loved it the year it came out (and I'm still pining for a CD release!), it's grown on me even more in the interim...the towering riffs, corpulent bass lines, grooving drums, excellent vocals, all of which can surge in and out of a more traditional black metal rhythm whenever necessary, but more often errs on the side of the adventurous. I might tell you that I'd be sad if this proved to be a one-off, but at the same time, it'll be just as timeless even if the project disappears like its unfortunate subjects.

Happy Halloween!

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10]

https://doldrumbm.bandcamp.com/

Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors (2002)

 My favorite of the Arcturus records, The Sham Mirrors takes on a sort of opposite side of the coin to La Masquerade Infernale. Where that sophomore possessed a sort of oafish charm to its experimentation (for better or worse), this one is every bit as varied, yet it's got a much more serious artistry about it, a perfect fit to its lyrical insinuations both social and cosmic. This also embraces the more atmospheric, melodic black metal of the debut and mixes that back into the weirder leanings they went on to pursue, and even the electronics of Disguised Masters find a suitable purpose where they are chosen to appear. Ultimately, this album is an adventure, captivating throughout its 43 minute run-time, with highlights and surprises found in each of the seven tracks. Does it still resemble Norway's Mr. Bungle? To an extent, but only in how smoothly the musicians can capture all these stylistic transitions into a coherent package, to the point that they seem as if they always belonged together.

"Kinetic" is a great opening piece, with a nearly even distribution between choppy metal guitars, circus symphonic, loads of electronic beats and samples, proggy bass lines, and a melodic chorus to die for, which would have been a hit on any more mainline black metal band's record. Rygg's vocals are still just as quirky as the past records, but they're not mixed to go far over the top into self-parody, and I also love how they've sniped in a lot of the harmonies. "Nightmare Heaven" gives you this piano and vocal-driven set up, complete with guitar melodies, only to transform into this unforgettable, quivering trip hop joint which might have appeared on a Silent Hill soundtrack. "Ad Absurdum" is another track that feels an evolution directly from Aspera Hiems Symfonia, packed with percussion real and programmed, spacey and eerie melodic chords, and a blissful bridge. I'm not going track-by-track through the whole thing, but it's an absolute banger...again, put something like "Collapse Generation" on Dimmu Borgir's Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and a much wider audience would have drooled over it. This is an absolute case of taking a step backwards and forward at the same time, and whether the band is conjuring up a symphonic BM storm or a keyboard lullaby, it all fits.

The production here is where a little of the polish comes off. It's trying to juggle a lot of instruments, effects and ideas together, and to its credit makes a lot of that clear, but there are some places where the swarthier rhythm guitar distortion seems a little too crunchy, or the drums get too machinelike where they would have benefited from an organic touch. Still exceptional enough for what it's pulling off in the early new millennium, and there's a later remaster on Prophecy Productions which tweaks it a little for the better, but if there are imperfections to be had, several of them are the mix. This album is so fucking good, with so many memorable moments, like Ihsahn's guest vocalist in "Radical Cut" or the frilly haunted carnival synthesizers of "For to End Yet Again", that it can be forgiven any of these minor transgressions, because it's just something so ahead of its time and yet never heard since, a distinct and unique hybrid musical lingo that you only hear from all these proggy weirdos birthed from the church burning scene. May their tongues speak it forever.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/arcturusnorway

Megadeth - Rude Awakening (2002)

By the time this album arrived, I had already seen Megadeth a couple times in the live setting, so there wasn't any real sense of anticipation to hear how it would come off on the stage. When I watched Sabbat's The End of the Beginning VHS tape, for instance, that was a band I had longed for and thus became more satisfied for all its flaws to at least get the chance to see them. Here on Rude Awakening, two whole discs of live material (and to their credit, they gave it almost two decades before dumping this sort of release onto their fandom), it feels competent but slightly dialed in, probably with some studio overdubs, and not all that high energy despite a considerable two hours and 24 tracks that cover the good chunk of their career. Still, The World Needs a Hero lineup manages not to cock up the classics, and that means something.

Right away I can tell you that I'm not interested in the inclusion of material from the three studio LPs before this, but it was inevitable since that is what they were touring on. I loved hearing "Angry Again" here, but I would have much rather had "Go to Hell" or "99 Ways to Die" on the track list above "Trust" and "Almost Honest". Still, they unleash a nice trio of "Symphony of Destruction", "Peace Sells" and "Holy Wars" at the end of the double-album which is probably what any crowd would want, and you get some of my favorites like "Tornado of Souls", "Hook in Mouth", "Devils' Island" and "Wake Up Dead" among the choices, so the bulk of this is rock fucking solid. Dave sounds pretty great, you get some of the flaws or imperfections in his pitch, but they only add to the personality. Considering that you have Dave and Al Pitrelli, I think the guitars sounds a little on the wimpy side, like when a lead breaks out there doesn't feel like the rhythm guitar offers much support. The drums are steady and I can make out the bass well enough, but even though I like the general 'airiness' of the recording, I think a little more punch and power to the instruments would have improved my rating.

Overall, though, if you had been waiting almost two decades to wander down to your record store and buy a proper Megadeth live offering, I don't think this one would disappoint you much, they sound tight enough and offer you a robust selection of tracks from their whole history, leaving only a few noted obscurities behind and 3-4 awesome Rust in Peace tunes that would have been better than anything off the more contemporary studio material for the time. This one doesn't approach the timeless annals of a Live After Death, No Sleep 'til Hammersmith or Unleashed in the East, but it's professional enough not to totally waste your money. As for the cover art, a fun image, but I feel like it would have been better on an actual studio outing...say you switch the random person for Vic Rattlehead, include the logo along the opposing building, here it feels thrown away, and I don't get the point. There's nothing rude or offensive or even explosive about how this sounds, instead it's practiced and rigid.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.megadeth.com/

Annihilator - Waking the Fury (2002)

The best thing I can say about Waking the Fury is that the WORST thing I can say about Waking the Fury is that the cover is kind of lame, a rather ugly photograph of the band just standing there. Not that these gents are ugly, mind you, just the coloring and composure of the photo and the way it works with the logo and title. Otherwise, maybe Joe Comeau's presence rubbed off a lot on this album, because it feels almost more like a power metal album (heavily in his wheelhouse) rather than a thrash album akin to Alice in Hell. There's also a strange level of fuzz to the mix on this one which is a bit unusual for that form, but it adds to the experience a little bit more crush and density, yet still letting all those blazing leads and warlike vocals breathe through the production.

I'm actually reminded a bit of Halford's second solo album, Crucible, which came out this same year of 2002 and had a comparable crunch. Just a bunch of burly power/heavy metal riffs slathered with good vocals and plenty of push and aggression, momentum almost never broken. That's not to say they don't do an occasional swerve like the almost industrial/groove metal vibes in "Prime Time Killing", but Joe's vocals make sure even that track stays above the belt, and it's way more in step with the surrounding material than Remains could ever pull off. A lot of the riffs here do feel rather 'stock' for power metal of the earlier 21st century, but they're at least function and reliable, and you won't be cranking this thing out of your speakers without some appropriate headbanging accompaniment. It's almost like Waters shut himself in a room with some records from Judas Priest and Accept and then put his spin on that formula, and would you know it?

It works rather well, at least better than anything the band had produced in the decade before it. I think the 'highs' from Carnival Diablos are a little better than the material here, but Waking the Fury benefits from the lack of bullshit that its predecessor suffered. There's a goofy riffing break or two here (like in "Cold Blooded"), but this is by far the most aggressive feeling Annihilator had been up to this point, even if it's not even specifically thrash. This would be an easy one to recommend whether you're into Agent Steel, Cage, or Forbidden, or the prior Joe Comeau output, and for once a little twist in the equation that actually succeeds rather than falls on its ass. I don't wanna hype this one up TOO much, for all its energy and passion and punishment, it's not always that catchy and I wouldn't rate it among other top flight albums of its style, but this is certainly in the upper echelon of Jeff Waters' output.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://www.annihilatormetal.com/

Ninnghizhidda - Demigod (2002)

The Germans not only swapped labels to Displeased for their second full-length, but also had a slight shift in style, not that they abandoned the melodic/symphonic overtures of the debut Blasphemy, in fact they are still quite prominent throughout this peace, but the production is not quite as strong, and they have a penchant for a few more simple riffs that sort of thrash along through the lofty chaos. It's almost like they serve more as a basis for the orchestration here whereas on the first album the riffing and keyboards stood more side-by-side, and I think I preferred that approach. Ultimately, though, Demigod is a decent follow-up, and one change for the better is that the vocals here aren't quite so massive, and that they actually try some different tones with the orchestration and arrangements.

Surely this still has its similarities to the Scandinavian symphonic black metal of the decade before it, but I'd also throw out a Therion comparison since the band fumbles around with those same sorts of occult concepts, Gothic atmospheres, female backup vocals, and especially here with the simple rhythm guitars dowsed in quality melodic leads. That's not completely the rule here, since you've got tunes like "Mistress of the Night" or "Conquering What Once Was", which blaze right along like they belonged on Blasphemy, but there is a fraction more exploration in the songwriting and that definitely feels like a band maturing. This sophomore exudes a little more mysticism, and it's not quite as brazen or aggressive. They get creepy and erotic with "Rape (The Virgin Mary)", or really atmospheric and hazy with the title track. A couple instrumentals are back-ended, and both sound good, from the classical acoustic guitars to the closing, swelling ambiance.

Ninnghizhidda deliver the goods, and thought it might seem bittersweet, as this would be their last album, they can at least rest assured that both of their records should prove gems to fans seeking out the more esoteric, obscure symphonic black metal which has recently come back into style in a huge way. If this interest grows, it's possible we might even see some reissues, although who knows where the rights are being held for this stuff. Anyway, this is solid stuff, they don't quite lyrically match a band like Cradle of Filth but they definitely put some work in, and these remain standby albums when I'm in the mood for the more Gothic/occult-oriented end of that spectrum.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

Skymning - Artificial Supernova (2002)

If Stormchoirs was a sign of its times, then Artificial Supernova might be seen as AHEAD of its times. Since three years had already passed, I could hardly call this an abrupt shift, but the band members obviously looked around at the landscape and decided to forge ahead rather than remaining one in a crowd of melodic death metal scenesters from the country of Sweden. Granted, industrial or futurist elements in metal were hardly novel after the turn of the century, but for a band in that particular melodic scene to start incorporating more grooves and electronic elements in this specific was felt rather unique. Sure, In Flames, Soilwork, Darkane, all had a very contemporary vibe about them, not shying away from synthesizers and other modernizations, but Artificial Supernova had a way of sounding like organic industrial metal, that is, performed with the mechanic aesthetics to the beats, but with the normal array of instruments.

It's still melodic death metal at its heart, and tracks like "Shadowed (Astral Silver)" and "Exoskeletal X.T.C." still had some of their best individual riffs and guitar lines in that style, but even then they are tempered with some weirdness, like the bizarre pickup in the latter tune's bridge where the drums start to shuffle along and all manner of noises are thrown in. It's actually quite involved here, and the beats reminded me a lot of Prong when they had transitioned from gutter thrash into the industrial region through Cleansing and Rude Awakening. Skymning just remembers that the focus should be on the guitars, and thus this is an endless riff onslaught which just never really lets up, and always rebounds from wherever it tries to stretch the envelope the furthest. It's so well written that I can't think of even a moment or two here in which I started to lose interest, and despite being over two decades into the future of its manifestation, this one still feels fresh.

The production, too, is so much richer than on Stormchoirs, which clear and potent guitars, lots of nice effects filtered through the melodies like, and a uniform, machine-like step to the drumming which is the perfect seat for all the myriad awesome riffs. Vocally it's cleaner than the debut, but still using the rasped style with a few samples. The bass is much more important here, and really the whole mix kicks ass of even stuff like In Flame's Reroute to Remain which felt a bit too compressed. The Swedes had moved on to bigger exposure with a release through Candlelight and Blackend, and really I cannot tell you why this one didn't succeed. Perhaps the audience was turned off by its evolution away from the power metal-infused melodeath, but many bands at this time were exploring new ground, and not nearly as well as Skymning. Easily my favorite of their catalogue.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

Sentenced - The Cold White Light (2002)

The Cold White Light, a.k.a. 'The Blue One' was a nice pivot from the dregs of Crimson, and in fact I'd say even the first five minutes of this album were more memorable than its predecessor in its entirety. Not that this is necessarily one of the stronger titles in the Finns' catalogue, but it benefits from really amazing production that gives the instruments more depth and punch than before, and the songs, while still exceedingly simple, are a lot moodier and catchier. It really seemed around this time that Sentenced were running nose to nose with other Gothic rock and metal bands from their scene like H.I.M., Charon, To/Die/For and Entwine, so you definitely hear a bit of that starting to rub off in Ville's patterns, especially the H.I.M., but at the same time, it adds a little more to his performance, makes it slightly more interesting.

There are points here, like the intro to "Brief is the Light", which are clearly among their most poppy and friendly, but at least they seem like they are headed towards something greater, which is not something I felt myself saying much with the prior album. When they arrive, you often get choruses, like to that song or "Neverlasting" or "Blood & Tears" which are even worthy of appearing on an album like Frozen. The riffs are drawn from the typical bag they'd been using since the late 90s, but there is a little fire lit under them and the more robust production to this album makes even the plainer material have more of an impact. The leads are always effective, if once again simple, and it's arguably Ville's strongest vocal performance, even if he doesn't land lines as sticky as some he had on Down. He is a natural at the dominant Goth rock element, and you could almost interchange him with that other Ville (Valo), who became more popular because of that band's woozy Romanti-Goth marketing and Bam Margera promotions.

In summary, The Cold White Light is what Crimson should have sounded like, it's like they emerged from the bar on a frosty Finnish winter day, and got caught in the glare off the trees and lakes, and remembered that they were once a pretty damn good band...and not even that long ago! It's nothing too special, and there are only 2-3 songs I really find myself returning to on a normal basis, but you could also spin the entire album and feel that it's consistent enough to leave an impact. For a penultimate studio album, it seems like the band had come to its senses and was steering back in the right direction, but taking their time to arrive.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos (2002)

Natural Born Chaos feels like someone took all the components of its predecessor A Predator's Portrait, threw them into a stir fry and, as if by fate, a more brilliant and memorable concoction emerged. This is my favorite Soilwork album, and one of my favorite albums EVER within the melodic death metal medium, right alongside The Jester Race, or the comparably modernized Damage Done by their countrymen Dark Tranquillity in the same year. Literally every second of this album evinces either an instant adrenaline rush, or an emotional nostalgia from me. It's arranged beautifully, with every track arriving at the point where it will have the most impact on the listener, and all of the ingredients the band were experimenting the year before have swiftly borne fruit.

The band chose the perfect producer/engineer for this album in Canada's legendary Devin Townsend, who clearly helps emphasize the more progressive and atmospheric sheen as it was likely influenced by his own projects like Ocean Machine or Strapping Young Lad. Together they really seemed to deconstruct the grooves, the leads, Speed's myriad of charismatic vocal styles, synthesizers, and percussion and then LEGO them together into something immediately more accessible. His harsher vocals dig more into a Phil Anselmo-like badass machismo without fully abandoning the Lindberg rasping capacity, and they sound great, but it's the cleans, the harmonies that have really come forward here, and along with the brighter and more interesting synthesizer tones they create a ton of the atmosphere, especially when they are drifting over some of the instruments' darker passages. The drumming is fucking great, the guitars manage to harness all the influences of thrash, groove, prog and melodic death into a riff-set that is NEVER shown up by either of the aforementioned.

There are no weak tracks among these, every song is a hit for me, from the pent up power of "Follow the Hollow" or "The Flameout", to the proggier synth-endowed numbers like the title track or "Mercury Shadow". Choruses are absolutely epic throughout, and every track has subtle, memorable licks all over the place, thus it's tough to pick favorites, but if I was on a short car ride or a quick gym rep I'd likely smash "Mindfields" or "No More Angels", concise and immortal blood-pumpers that never fail me. Not that any of it fails me, really, I listened to this album (and the comparable Damage Done) hundreds of times when I first got them, I think I remember ordering them from The End Records way back when, and they just became instant posterchildren as the 'future' of melodic death metal, since they had all but stripped much of the 90s cliches to sound more contemporary and forward-thinking...

Now, maybe that future didn't always pan out, since a lot of attention shifted away from the niche later, but at the time it was riding on a lot of hope and potential, feelings that this album still wells up within me, even today in 2023 as I sit here reviewing it. I still feel like I'm hearing a glimpse of tomorrow, a retrofuturistic evolution upon the Whoracles and Slaughters of the Soul, which I like even more than any of those seminal pieces. If I had any critique whatsoever it's that the bonus track "Kvicksilver" just sounds like an amalgam of ideas from other, better ones, but it's not part of the core experience, and as I mentioned, there are already riffing sequences or ideas here that feel as if they were directly lifted from A Predator's Portrait and dramatically improved. Otherwise, Natural Born Chaos is just my jam, a record that makes me smile for 42 minutes straight, that makes me want to scream, to move, vital signs rising and falling with each riff, each fill, each vocal phrasing.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.75/10]

https://www.soilwork.org/

Helloween - Treasure Chest (2002)

Treasure Chest is a massive 'fan package' sort of collection which aims to at least give the band's core fanbase something they haven't heard before, in the form of some remixes or alternate vocal takes on familiar tracks. The value of this one is somewhat debatable though; if you're picking up the 3CD version, there's a bit more to recommend, but even if you just grab the 2CD, at the very least you are getting all the tracks as remastered, and then some of those are ADDITIONALLY remixed. I am no fan of the long form 'greatest hits' sort of compilation, as is well documented, so I had to approach this one with some hesitation, but the promise of a few rarities put me in a moth/flame situation. I just hoped I wasn't going to get shocked too badly...

The remasters actually sound quite decent, smoothing over some of the production edges folks might have had with albums like Master of the Rings, Time of the Oath and The Dark Ride, but for the newer stuff this obviously comes with only minor adjustments. "Mr. Torture" never sounded brighter, but what I get a little confused by is that the levels and power of the tunes from different records don't really balance out here all that much, so if you're blasting through this on a good stereo it's just a smidgeon jarring. More interesting are how the older tracks like "Future World" or "Halloween" are approached, and they sound fine, but I think it'd be easier to judge them all on fully remastered original albums; the really early choices with Kai singing still sound the roughest and don't really benefit from being surrounded by the more contemporary material. As for the remixed stuff, you're getting a lot larger difference, especially on something like "Starlight" because this version is done with Kiske's vocals instead of Hansen's. I prefer the original because it just had the craziness and atmosphere, but this one's also a treat, whereas the remix of "Ride the Sky" actually also sounds pretty decent and loses little of that earlier aggression.

So it's a case by case basis, and I don't really want spend over 2nd a half hours on that, but most of the tunes are not at all unpleasant to listen to in these incarnations. Probably my favorite of the remasters was "Kings Will Be Kings", it just seems a little more powerful and atmospheric. Of more interest (initially) was the 3rd disc in the Limited Edition which is full of B-sides and rarities...some aren't really that rare when they were included on bonus discs on pretty common versions of the albums, like the stuff from the Master of the Rings bonus disc, and there are other tracks here like "Shit and Lobster, a bonus track from Pink Bubbles Go Ape which kind of sucks, and sucks even more to lead this off. The vocals sound way off, too loud, and while it's definitely metalized it seems like its got dull hard rock roots to it. The same could be said for "I Don't Care You Don't Care" and "Ain't Got Nothin' Better", the former of which is fucking terrible. The cover of "Electric Eye" is good, and "A Game We Shouldn't Play", a bonus track for Better Than Raw, is awesome, with those little symphonic and synth swells, great guitars and vocals, but these are at the end of the third disc and it's just too little too late.

I'm rather indecisive over all on this one...clearly it's the best 'greatest hits' OR 'rarities' package the band had released since The Best * The Rest * The Rare, but by no means is it necessarily worth tracking down unless you really wanna hear a few of those B-sides, and in every case I'd say get a version of the CD that already includes them. But I'm not going to trash it, because when you include all the work that went into the remastering and remixing, its clear that this as a product had some love put into it, just a lack of consistency when you take all three discs into account.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.helloween.org/

Rage - Unity (2002)

I've had plenty of positives to say about the 90s Rage records, even if I had spent that decade mildly disappointed, but come 2002 and the sophomore of its new power trio lineup, I was confronted with what would certainly become my favorite of the Germans' albums outside of the first five. Wagner, Mike Terrana and Victor Smolski had written a storm of a record which accented upon many of the strengths of its predecessor but ramping up the musicianship and arguably the heaviness. Because, make no mistake, while Unity is as varied as some of its neighbors in their catalog, this is one hard hitting effort that absolutely helped redefine this aging act for a whole new generation, while keeping them current and distinct among the other burgeoning Euro power metal acts.

Lead by Peavy's vocals, which are definitely lower and angrier and less ranging than some of the old albums, but still perfectly sculpted to go along with this particular sound, Unity is a positive step forward. Victor's rhythm guitars here are beastly, iron-clad, with a bulky tone that works whether he's firing on the faster material or going into some of his complex grooves. And yet they're supported by loads of little details, from his unending tides of catchy lead-work to an impressive array of synths which serve as a further bolstering to the louder guitar tone. Make no mistake, this album is just as classically-inspired as some of the others which Peavy and Victor wrote together, but it's the way they integrate it here so that it's a part of the whole that really blew me off my seat. Usually, they'd have these pompous multi-track conceptual bits that were kind of a neo-prog-classical style, which little insertions of the Rage we known and love, but here it all blends together seamlessly and helps this one excel on so many levels.

Rarely does an album feel so all-over-the-place and yet coherent at the same time, but listen through the proggy escape of the instrumental title track finale, or the bombastic choirs woven into "Dies Irae", and how well they collapse into the band's riffing momentum and be stunned. There are literally about 150 or more great riffs on the album, and they're often busy as hell, with a lot going on, developing into one another with a level of foresight you don't hear from many guitar heroes. The first triple combo of tracks here, "All I Want", "Insanity" and "Down" instantly thrust into my top playlist the band has ever written, balancing off this new aggression with some classier hard rock and metal patterns that would have been legendary if they were issued in the 80s. Mike Terrana's muscular framework ensures that everything else proceeds effortlessly, he's arguably the main reason all of this ties together due to his consistent battery even during its more left field moments. The bass also sounds fucking spectacular here, pumping through the depths of the mix.

Not every track here is equally legendary, I grant you, and a few near the latter half of the disc do drag it down just a point, but nothing is bad, and I can promise there's at least somethin catchy on every single cut even if a few of them lag behind. The bio-mechanical Giger-like cover artwork featuring the Soundchaser is pretty awesome, and it's nice to see them bring that mascot back into some prominence, not that they'd ignored him much, but like their classic album covers to Perfect Man and (the real artwork for) Secrets in a Weird World, this one just transports you away into that same realm of imaginative nostalgia their classics have always conjured up. The lyrics are all pretty relatable and in that way it also reminds me of Perfect Man, and this really just has anything I could look for from a power/heavy metal album in the 21st century...a go for the throat attitude, gobs of dizzying musicianship and no sense whatsoever that this scene was anywhere near over. I'd argue Unity sounds modern even by today's standards, two decades later. What a statement.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (I am a real survivor)

http://www.rage-official.com/

Prong - 100% Live (2002)

When Prong re-emerged after a five year hiatus, the longest yet in the band's career, they did so with their first full-length live album. This wasn't the first time they'd given us the uncut experience, as they had a Peel Sessions EP and another rare live EP that I've never actually had my hands on; but 16 years into their existence seems like a respectable time to produce such a product and one would assume this would be handled professionally, especially since they had such a great run into and through the 90s. Well, 100% Live, cultivated from a couple gigs in the Midwest, certainly sounds decent enough in terms of its mix and even the song selection, but I don't know that it was necessarily arranged to have a lot of impact on the listener, to give him/her that same rush of seeing Tommy and company on a stage.

What I mean is that the track listing here, as presented to the fan, seems a bit too mellow up front, where you'd expect them to start off with some ragers and then get a little more dynamic as the sets progressed. "Rude Awakening" is an awesome song but it's a little too subdued to kick off a set from a band built on thrash, and then after that they launch into a chuggy tune called "Initiation" which was entirely new to us (they'd later change the name for Scorpio Rising), though it did build to a decent chorus that would have felt at home on the two studio albums before it, some nice bass lines from ex-Lizzy Borden player Brian Perry (who would not appear on any of the studio material). Proceeding into "Broken Peace", a track that doesn't quite work as well within the organic live environment as it did in the studio, there's a real sense that the band is kind of phoning it on or taking it a little too easy, not because they're cocking it all up but because of how they structured this. Even when they take on a more aggressive tune like "Another Worldly Device" it feels a little sluggish, the one real exception being "Disbelief" when they reach straight back to their roots and go hardcore wild, or "Cut-Rate" from Cleansing...in fact there's just a chunk of material near the end of the live album that seems more driven and ferocious than the rest and it stands out too much, including the finale, "Unconditional".

I think you can also notice small production differences in some of the material which is always the risk when you're not just pulling it from a single source, and even though the wilder closing tracks might seem less cleanly produced, they're so much more fun. Don't get me wrong, I like almost all the songs on this album in their studio incarnations, but the whole industrial/groove arsenal in their sound has never seemed to come across live as well as the classics which sound awesome. All told, 100% Live is certainly not a bad representation of their chops, but it just seems inconsistent in the context of a record that's you'd think was supposed to thrill the audience at their return. A better arrangement of the tracks would have done wonders for this one, as it stands I'll just be sticking to their studio works because there's not much reason to revisit this.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://prongmusic.com/

Mystic Circle - Damien (2002)

Mystic Circle had a fairly substantial career, starting in 1992, as one of Germany's earlier black metal acts, and dropping a number of albums on fairly visible labels like Last Episode, Massacre and eventually Dockyard 1 for their swan song. Through this period, their progress ran parallel to the rise of black metal to its mid-90s popularity, but they were often critiqued of having a lot of vapid and unmemorable records that were lost in the shuffle of the genre's explosion and subsequent over-saturation during that era. That said, as you'll hear on this or a number of their other albums, it was not for lack of trying, because these guys hit fairly hard and maintain a level of consistency that suffers only through its lack of any real distinction; nothing that really stood out against their peers from the Scandinavian countries; nothing unique like what you'd hear from the Greeks, Czechs, French, etc.

Damien, it should be said, is one of their stronger, more intense efforts, and like on a number of their other albums, they're quite capable of grabbing a concept from either horror or the occult and then committing to painting it into a tempestuous landscape. This record features a lot of traits which you would expect from any album celebrating our favorite Satanic love-child, from the organs and synths that lend it a sacrilegious shade, to some evil, thundering black metal which makes you feel as if you're being torn apart by demon-driven attack dogs. Mystic Circle were a band often heralded as a Teutonic alternative to a Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir, and this comparison does hold for this particular album, which threads a lot of leads and keys in with its rhythm guitar riffing, and a heavily symphonic structure and bombast, though they don't layer that on too thick, and permit the intensity of the blasting, chugging and chord patterns control the tempo, which ultimately gives this disc a slightly different feel than those more popular acts.

This album really has a pummeling, forceful low end to it created by the grimy tone of the rhythm guitar, which seems to hone in on the bottom strings rather than the cold, razor-tinted chords that thrive among the many traditional black metal acts. It's almost like a death metal battery at points, but glazed over with the snarled vocals, thickly embedded synthesizers and slightly audible spurts of shredding guitars that give it a nice, frantic effect. A great example of this is "God is Dead, Satan Arise" which beat me to a pulp, even if it doesn't escalate into anything truly unforgettable. There is a slight monotony to the album in that so much of it seems to consist of the same, tirelessly thundering pace with only small variations in the note pickings, synth lines and vocal patterns, but when it gels together it really is something you can feel in your gut. A more visceral and brutal aesthetic than you might expect from the climbing, almost operatic evil of The Omen itself, but lyrically this album is more of a direct invocation to some Satanic apocalypse, and uses the film as an inspiration towards that end rather than a strict narrative outline.

The intro and interlude pieces are brooding, and lovingly cheesy, with deeper string sounds and then flurries of chiming dissonance. They merge pretty well with the bulkier disposition of the guitars. I doubt there are even a half dozen riffs throughout the album that stick to my memory, and some are painfully generic and predictable, but many others are at least smooth and sinister enough that they are engaging for the ears to follow. It's a textbook 'solid' sort of album, which I can still listen through 15 years later and enjoy to an extent, but would rarely choose it over those examples of its genre which I find preferably inspired or original. If anything, it's evidence enough that these Germans could perform, and in better times might have spread greater ripples were there just not so much competition overshadowing them. A moot point, now that they've been broken up for nearly a decade, but in some alternate universe I wouldn't be surprised to see Mystic Circle clinging on to some esteemed veteran status, having survived the backlash against the more mainstream side of the black metal spectrum and garnered respect from even the lowliest heckling cellar trolls.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (even now he's in the world)

https://www.facebook.com/Mystic-Circle-123809281024735/

Cadaveria - The Shadows' Madame (2002)

Opera IX was not a band with any real weak link back in its heyday, but if there were any member distinctive and striking enough to set off on her own solo career, it was frontwoman Raffaella, aka Cadaveria, whose gaunt, raven-haired presence and unusual vocals were a large part of the band's appeal. Not to take anything away from their overall style and songwriting, which was unique among the volleys of earlier European black metal, for its use of Gothic elements in ways not entirely mimicking peers such as Cradle of Filth, etc. But for whatever reasons now lie buried in the dust of indifference, a split took place after the Italians' third full length The Black Opera, and she and drummer Marcelo Santos parted with the rest, forming a new act around the singer's stage and studio persona.

They pursued a modified sound which is to most ears more accessible than the duo's alma mater, but not entirely rounding off the menacing, erotic striga edges of her past performances. The riffing and structure of these songs is a simpler and more familiar, perhaps a little less ambitious than they had worked with before, but not exactly mainstream in architecture. As the operatic intro to "Spell" dissolves, they lurch into these palm muted, chugging doom/thrash Candlemass riffs which work very effectively as Cadaveria shouts out an angry, vitriolic harpy tone similar to Nicole Lee of ZnöWhite obscurity or the late Dawn Crosby from Detente and Fear of God. However, there are also traces of black metal charge rhythms, and proto death metal tremolo riffing and a slight degree of classical note progressions woven through the material that keeps it fresh and expansive, and when she wants to turn up the heat she'll erupt into some blacker rasping vocal lines that seem like a more strained mutation on the higher pitched parts, although I have to admit I prefer those.

Elsewhere, The Shadows' Madame is a fairly well-balanced production with an appreciable level of proficiency, especially in Santos' drumming which retains a lot of the faster black/death metal components employed by the previous band. Bass lines are fairly average, but the rhythm guitar tone is rich enough to pop right out, and you get a lot of inflection to the chords, the climbing and falling patterns of the original guitarist Frank Booth. Leads aren't the most well-developed aspect of the band's sound, but they definitely bring enough frizzy and wailing rock & roll antics to offset some of their fatter supporting riffs. There's also this overall depth to the recording which makes them feel like a much larger band, yet they don't overdose on symphonic ingredients or other pompous aesthetics you might expect; this is a very pure, riff-driven record at its heart, with a subtle use of atmospherics or electronics and sound effects that serve only to underlie the grime and groove of the riffs. I can't promise that a lot of those riffs are individually very interesting, but combined with the subtle strangeness and Cadaveria's haunting angst they're lent a lot more personality than they might otherwise harbor.

For an album obviously meant to associate with the darkness and horror she'd long been working with, I can't say it really and truly delivers, at least not beyond the imagery evoked in the lyrics. It's much more of a straightforward, groove and burst of an extreme metal pastiche as opposed to an effort that can evoke the morbid fascinations and nostalgic rituals of bands like Mortuary Drape and Opera XI, nor the rich legacy of Italy's horror directors spanning back about 40 years before this. The Shadow's Madame is more of a vehicle for direct destruction, easier to digest without abandoning the extremity from which it was a borne, a hearse meant to spill its human cargo out on the red carpet of rock stardom rather than some desolate castle up in the hills where a psychotic nobleman waits to carve them up. As a post-Opera IX vehicle this album works well enough, it still sounds fresh and punchy behind the better vocal lines, and it's easily one of Cad's stronger works beyond the turn of the century.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (devoid of evening and morning)

http://www.cadaveria.com/

Grief of Emerald - Christian Termination (2002)

Problems persisted with Grief of Emerald's ability to stand out among a very crowded crowd, but one has to give them a little credit for at least settling down on a few things here, not the least of which are the choice of logo (and a decent one) and more vicious production values of their third and final record in the Listenable deal: Christian Termination. I grant you, the label might have been glad to wash their hands of such a decidedly average black metal execution for the time, but the Swedes did end on their highest note yet and if nothing else, I cannot challenge the level of aggression and persistence here, or the fact that they so boldly wore their sacrilege on their sleeves in a ploy that might have worked to attract more brutal/occult death metal fans into their fold.

The death metal component here is of course understated; you could classify a few of the slower chugging riffs in that category, but this is still keyboard-induced orchestration with a lot of predictable Scandinavian black metal riff progressions which veer between mid-paced simplicity and sinuous, serpentine melodies which sadly are just never that great. I actually dug the ruddy sewage of that rhythm guitar tone, it stands out far more than on the prior albums and made the vocals by comparison seem a lot more grisly and fucked up. Drums were still a power storm of blasts and double-bass, void of subtlety or dynamic range outside of the tempo alone, but they definitely bludgeon away like a lot of the faster Floridian evil death metal via Deicide or Diabolic. If Christian Termination has one notable aesthetic departure from its predecessors, I would label that the more chaotic songwriting...tunes like "The Almighty is Rising" feel like they take more random turns in pacing, and while this is occasionally obnoxious, it does at least reveal a mild sense of misdirection. Grief of Emerald were trying to break out of their box here, just not really succeeding so well...

The cover art was still insidiously lame, with some strange orgy of giant snakes and skull-faced nuns, but you could at least laugh at this one where the others were just too awkward to stare at for more than a second. It's all dowsed in fire and evil with crucifixes and stained-glassed windows for background, and that sort of showiness permeates the music itself, and the constant nagging organ tones being run off in the background but heavily crushed by the volume of the riffing force and vocals. Once in a while they'll fire off an exotic level of escapism like that melodic intro to "Those Who Bear the Mark" which hinges on some actual quality music, but for the most part Christian Termination tends to thrive off its cliched blasphemies and genre alone. That said, of the band's first phase (prior to the ensuing hiatus), this is hands down the strongest of the three full-lengths and might possess some limited appeal to fans who number mid-list Swedish black metal albums amidst their collections of Deicide, Krisiun and Vital Remains.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (your easiest prey)

http://www.griefofemerald.se/

Exmortem - Pestilence Empire (2002)

It's got to be discouraging when you've released four records and each is on a separate label, and in fact this curse would plague Exmortem for all six of their full-lengths, signed to a 'who's who' of European extremity. For Pestilence Empire, it was Osmose Productions out of France, who likely provided the most visibility for these Danes, and thank fuck they took advantage of that by producing what was clearly their best album to that point, securing a more solid four-piece lineup, with a new rhythm section (bassist Mephistopheles, drummer Galheim) coming over from a number of previous, deeper underground projects in which they had worked together; which translates into a really tight execution here as they complement Sigtyr's more involved and intricate riffing passages.

As Dejected in Obscurity was to Labyrinths of Horror, so too is Pestilence Empire to its predecessor  Berzerker Legions. Against a reliable backdrop of comparable, blasting excess, the songwriter is far more atmospheric, evil, roiling and surgical in its construction, and while that doesn't necessarily manifest into a highly original set of tunes, its certainly their most otherworldly and accomplished recording in terms of both technicality and raw punishment. Tunes like "Pestifer" are possessed of these out-of-left-field dissonant chord structures and sliding weirdness that seem to channel amorphous Lovecraftian horrors while persisting in a churning, nihilistic undertow thanks to the excellent fucking guitar tone. "Malus Invictus" basically takes the unrepentant speed of the prior album and injects some punchier, unexpected riffing twists and a double kick sequences you can feel deep below your chest cavity. The finale, "A Tyrants Hunger" has that sort of peppy and clinical technicality in its architecture that reminded me heavily of the first Decapitated or some of the faster Vader material of the 90s, with some choppy evil old Pestilence death/thrash harmonies.

This new bassist and drummer made it seem all too effortless, and even though the album might still rely a little too much on sheer blasting, Sigtyr had arrived at the perfect counterbalance, which was to make just about everything he played either interesting or malevolent enough to surrender any shortcomings. I'd also add that Smerte sounded louder here, his voice taking on a more cavernous aesthetic where it's clearly bouncing back and forth to contrast the more busied guitars. About the only real gripe I could offer against Pestilence Empire is that it still could really use some outbreaks of whipping, wild, incendiary leads in the Morbid Angel fashion where they would just leave the listener speechless. As it stands, Sigtyr puts so much work into the construction of the guitars that there were points where I just wanted the guy to take off into the stratosphere and I felt like I was still left on the launch pad. They need not even be too technical, just frenzied and messy and thrilling. Otherwise, Pestilence Empire is quite spotless in presentation, I like the dark and moody sound which isn't brickwalled or overproduced, and this remains in my opinion their very best album. If someone wanted to know where to start with the Danes, track down a copy of this and their 2008 swan song Funeral Phantoms and explore what should have been a better known band.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (leading the syndicate of death)

Decapitated - Nihility (2002)

Nihility was the second and final Decapitated album. Okay, that's a lie, but it was really the last to truly deliver on what I felt was so strong an aesthetic foundation, and even then the well of brilliant riffing had begun to dry. It would be a stretch to call this a 'disappointment', but it was certainly a step down from Winds of Creation, retaining only a handful of tracks that were created at that same level of quality, and seemingly watered down with some simpler chugging death metal architecture that would create a more accessible interface with their growing audience. Really, though, it comes down to a selection of riffs which are simply more banal or boring than the debut, and might have been written by anyone in the Polish scene. There were a lot more points at which my 'oohs and ahs' were replaced by 'that sounds like Vader, or Morbid Angel', or whatever, and I also felt like the production here was also a bit more arid and non-compelling.

Funny thing, though, is that I know a number of folks for whom this was the first, and remains the favorite Decapitated listening experience. These people are wrong, of course, but let them have their delusions! Nihility seems to pursue a more cosmic, philosophical side than its predecessor, which was already fairly serious in terms of its lyrical bent, but unfortunately the ideas on parade don't really take that progressive next step which would have integrated more melody or stranger song structures you might expect of a maturation effort. Instead, this is a mix of about a half-dozen of the brilliant guitar patterns off Winds of Creation with a slew of death/thrash tropes redolent of the bands I listed above. You still get that drop-of-a-dime sense of concussive stop/start precision, and Vogg can swerve off into a monstrously memorable passage that stands among the best he's ever written, but they're just not as consistent. There are 'filler' songs here, without a doubt, if not many of them, and rather than listen through the entire 35 minutes and find myself questioning my worth as a musician, I always seem to skip around to particular tunes. And even then, there is nothing quite on the level of a "Blessed", "Eye of Horus" or any of the other masterworks they produced at a younger age...though a few tunes come admittedly close.

Exceptions are "Spheres of Madness", which has an effortless punctuality to the chugging that becomes instantly recognizable once it breaks into that second, clinical muted riff. "Eternity Too Short" and "Nihility" itself also feature some of those dizzying feats of dexterity, but other tunes like "Names" and "Babylon's Pride" leave something to be desired and I could list a number of other post-Morbid Angel bands in the same scene (Behemoth, Hate) who also might have created something similar as they were eking out their own stylistic transitions. That's not to say Nihility is lazy or lacks some creative drive behind its blueprint, but having expected the band's sophomore to splatter my brains everywhere and perhaps arrive as one of the most frighteningly intelligent albums in its niche in many years, I was pretty bummed that it was at best more of the same and at worst evidence of the 'sophomore slump'. The production itself, while technically not bad, seems to work against the seismic wonders of the performance...louder drums and a less warm guitar tone give it less depth, and Sauron's vocals felt rather dry, dull and might have been contributed by just run of the mill guttural guru, though they use some panning and other techniques to blend them into the atmosphere.

Still, I don't wanna seem too 'down' on this one, because if I were to pick some random gore splatter tech death record off the shelf in this period, Nihility would have still proven superior. The band fires on most cylinders and retains its concise and exciting impressions at times when the material isn't at the particular standard I expected, and surely they don't embarrass themselves, or experiment with the djent or groove-like elements that populate their more recent recordings. I can't help but wonder if the successful buzzing of the debut kept them so occupied that they simply didn't have the time to let a number of these tunes fully gestate, but then that material had been around years prior to the Wicked World signing, so I doubt it. I should also note that, while remaining sort of lame, abstract and computer generated, the color scheme and imagery on this disc were more welcoming than on Winds of Creation; the lyrics are also on the same plane as the first effort, if occasionally hinging on philosophical gibberish. Ultimately, Nihility hovers below that horizontal border of greatness, and has not improved with age, but if I were to collect a 'career best' I might snap up 2-3 of these songs, remix them, tag them onto the tail of the debut and call it a day.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (devoured by perfect entirety)

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

Gaschamber - Gaschamber (2002)

With a provocative name like Gaschamber, you've really got your work cut out for you in sonically living up to it, something that this Pennsylvania trio did with their eponymous, obscure debut back in 2002. Granted, the album is little more than glorified Slayer worship, with song structures, vocals and even production choices eerily reminiscent of the masterpiece Reign in Blood, not to mention the faster elements present on South of Heaven and its successor Seasons in the Abyss, but if you're going to borrow...do it from the best, right? And I'd definitely point out that while there were always a handful of throwback bands in the 90s and early 'oughts who were also quite derivative in keeping the fire burning for the nearly defunct genre, Gaschamber was well ahead of the trending rethrash that has blown up over the last 6-7 years. It had been done before, but this was violence, speed, cruelty and an absolute lack of apologies...without the goofiness or image obsession that seems to make light of a genre that, apart from a few retarded gimmicks from bands like M.O.D. or Anthrax, was not in league with the irony some youngsters seem to believe.

Gaschamber is short and wastes no time getting to the point, with eight tracks in 24 minutes, a technique its mentor Reign in Blood mastered in the mid-80s. The songs are ALL fast without being excessively samey, and you're not going to have to suck up some ballad or worry about any experimentation. The guitars are a bit juicier than King and Hanneman on that iconic release, but they definitely cultivate that same sense of dry authenticity, not too harsh or distorted, but vibrant and thick enough that you can perceive all the acrobatic speed metal-inflections of the rhythm tracks ripping and racing all over one another. The vocal timbre and meter in many of the tracks (like "Defeating the Gods" or "Death in the Gaschamber") is highly reminiscent of Tom Araya, but this guy Karl Mitchell definitely sounds a bit more youthful and petulant, with a splash of more splatter- or crossover thrash frontmanship in there. But, clearly he's barking up that same tree, and a lot of the lyrical themes of genocide and warfare will naturally recount classics like "Angel of Death" in more ways than one; though something like "Trenchcoat Justice" helps update the topics to incorporate the social strife and mayhem of the early 21st century. Samples and vocal effects are used sparsely but tastefully, and I definitely never grew bored on any of the eight tunes, despite the glaring sense of familiarity.

The bass guitars are thick and quick but rarely stand forth from the rhythm riffs, though with Mitchell already performing vocals and other guitars, one can sort of forgive that lack of attention. At least you can hear them cleanly enough in the manic and pestilent thrashing of a "Hurricane of Blood" or "Raped to Death", and certainly there is more personality than a number of 80s discs I could think of, especially the punk/hardcore attitude they're given on the intro to "Civil War". Drums, on the other hand, sound pretty claptrap, organic but there's just something about the boxy snare that tends to distract me, and the tom fills can occasionally feel a bit too bulky. But you can't really fault the level of enthusiasm or energy there, and the beats are all fairly standard explosions of earlier Dave Lombardo which don't rely too heavily on the extreme metal drumming techniques (blasting and endless double bass) that Slayer helped pioneer. The leads are just as rough and frenzied as their spiritual successors on Reign in Blood, without wiring in a lot of cohesion or classical/scale influence, but they don't emotionally stand out from the supporting rhythm guitars too often, and internally rely on a lot of the same tremolo repetitions of notes, not taking much of an opportunity to rifle off the spurts of screaming, incendiary wizardry one might hope for.

Ultimately, the album is not a particularly great or memorable one, but it functions because of the timeless alternations between tight picking/sheer velocity and those gnarly, evil ascending or descending break riffs that Slayer or Destruction made immortal on tunes like "Raining Blood" or "Mad Butcher". These just don't get old, even if I have to give Gaschamber low marks for innovation or originality, and never feel compelled to listen to it over the genuine articles that inspired it. I'm loathe to call it a 'ripoff', since note for note it is not, but they were more than wearing their influence on their sleeves, and enjoyment of this lone album in their career will really depend on whether or not one wants to hear the 'magic' of 80s Slayer (post-Show No Mercy) resurrected, repackaged and force fed down your ears with a mallet. If the answer is yes, then try and locate a sample of this disc. Gaschamber, at the very least, had great taste, even if we'll never hear what they might later evolve that into. At least this album is blissfully void of the 'HEY U GUYS LOOK WE R SO THRASH' strike-a-pose bullshit that's due to send this excellent genre back into a state of hibernation for another 15 years.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

Darkane - Expanding Senses (2002)

2002 would bring about a reversion to a more atmospheric Darkane, which was both reminiscent of their Rusted Angel debut, and at the same, time, not exactly. This is a largely groove oriented disc which sees its ceaseless, muscular chugging embroidered with all manner of modern atmospherics like melodies, subtle orchestration, and it even goes as far as dabbling in some industrial machine noises. Expanded Senses was in a way symptomatic of the Swedish melodeath scene at large, in which all the major bands were attempting to strive towards modernity and stray from the formulas of the 90s. This same year, for instance, Soilwork and Dark Tranquillity hit what I'd consider to be their respective, creative summits (Natural Born Chaos and Damage Done), producing two of the finest works in this sub-genre, while In Flames was totally watering down its power-meets-death metal approach into something I could only describe as bouncy, pasteurized emo-death (Reroute to Remain)...

Compared to their more recognized countrymen, Expanded Senses was a slim evolution indeed, but it did swap some of the more acrobatic guitar work of its predecessors for thicker rhythm progressions over which Andreas Sydow's passionate vocals were better embedded than on Insanity. There are glaringly obvious throwbacks like "Violence from Within", in which the hasty, muted tremolo rhythm reeks of "July 1999" from the debut, while "Parasites of the Unexplained" might have fit snugly onto Insanity, but in general this is a lot of burgeoning, dense and simpler rhythm grooves like "Innocence Gone", "Imaginary Entity" or "Chaos vs. Order" (a personal favorite here). If you hate the overuse of the palm mute in your metal, then this is hardly an album to win you over, but to Darkane's great credit, even the most dumbed down material on this album is lent some texture by all the background happenings. Sydow's brash cleans bounce around in the mix like someone howling across a radar field, while Peter Wildoer lays down a foundation one could build a half dozen stories upon. It's very turbulent, bass-laden music which seeks to overpower the listener more than either of the earlier albums, but there's plenty enough subtlety if you're able to forgive its brickwalled crushing production and let it pummel the snot out of you.

It's certainly not all slower paced, and I'd actually estimate a good 50/50 split between its two polar tempo regions, but some of the best stuff here just lays you out with the combination of industrialized chugging and sampled symphonics. You can feel the down tuning of the guitars here so much more than the other albums, primarily because of their stalwart devotion to slugging you in the intestines and inducing a riot deep in your bowels. No acoustic choir present this time, though they do pull in Lawrence Mackrory to do a bit of a 'duet' with Sydow on "Chaos vs. Order". Always classy when a bands present and former members get along well enough to 'keep it in the family'. The leads throughout the disc serve only as impoverished hangers-on to the bludgeoning bourgeoisie of the rhythm guitar, but I found them tasteful enough to prove more memorable than any on Insanity. Sydow does a lot more melodic singing, and I'm still not positive that the right balance had been struck here for him, but certainly there is a lot more depth and weight to his performance than some of the duller lines populating the previous album.

Definitely not an album I 'loved', but I found it overall more catchy, its arrangements stronger than Insanity. As if the band took a breather, examined the direction it was headed, and decided to pull back a bit rather than letting Peter, Jorgen, Klas and Christofer just run absolutely fucking wild, a feat they are capable of at any given moment. Seriously, in terms of raw musicianship, I'd run these guys up against In Flames, At the Gates or Dark Tranquillity and feel quite confident in a huge bet. The level of ability is staggering (no wonder Wildoer recently made it so close to the Dream Theater drum seat); so it's just a matter of whether the songwriting brilliance can match the proficiency on any given day, any given album. Expanding Senses is not quite to the level of excellence of the debut, and very much overshadowed by what would follow (an album I find completely perfectly from its first to last second); but if you can, for 40 minutes, place yourself into its universe of pummeling, dynamic neo-thrash, then it's a positive experience. Also must mention that I loved the cover art on this one much more than the first two. Not sure that the music is quite so surreal or cerebral as what Thomas Ewerhard did there, but it contributes to the whole 'abused in an asylum' aesthetic the band had adopted since the turn of the century.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (the plague will not withdraw)

http://www.darkane.com/