By: Anders

Posted: Jan 2, 2006

This Norwegian band has a lot of fuzz going on around them, after the release of this, their debut album, they have gotten a good deal of fans and has been received fairly positive around the world. Heavy, melodic and atmospheric death metal, spiced up industrial effects and various samples, to round of the sound picture. Vivid paintings of death, despair and frustration is how the musical output ends up.

At first the music is very hard to get into, I have lost count of how many times I have found the album, popped it in the player and removed it after it ended, with me left behind with an empty feeling. Though as time has passed by, and I have listened to this CD an insanely amount of times, it has grown a lot and has manifested itself as a strong album. The compositions are built upon the varied and well sounding drum-machine, the patterns are not very predictable, we are served all from quiet passages, to furious kick drums and more machine-like paces. The guitar tracks are often cold and melodic, with a gripping epic touch, which hooks the listener and keeps the interest held. There are some really good and noisy guitar ideas once in a while and some good leads as well. The industrial spheres there are added works really well with the atmosphere that the music invokes in the listener, and adds the last piece of coldness and eeriness at times. The different samples used for intros and other places as well works great together with the concept of the music, and aren't annoying as such often can be, they compliment the music and compositions very well. Though it happens once in a while that the momentum are broken, by a twist in the music or a break of some sort, and I think that was what made it hard for me to get through the album in the start, though as time goes, those breaks serves as small "breathers" and actually starts to make sense. The dark more or less snarled growl works really well in the universe of the band as well, and adds yet a dimension to the many-facetted music.

If you give this album the needed amount of spins, it will reward you greatly and give you many hours of pleasant listens. Cold melodic, yet catchy and brutal at times industrial death metal, telling tales of a bleak future, tales that can be felt in the heart and seen in the mind, while the music unfolds itself.

Rating: 8/10

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