PURGATORY AFTERGLOW

I used to like Swedish death metal of the early 90's but still prefered American or even British (Carcass) metal brutality. And then Edge Of Sanity released this album. They did it when I wasn't into such music anymore or should I say I was more into classical metal and prog rock. This is a bit of surprise as it starts like some kind of AOR stuff with clean vocals and keyboards in the background. After that intro Twilight turns into typical death metal tune but the most important thing is, it's still melodic death metal. That pattern with clean and growling vocals is also used in Blood-Colored as it's heavy metal + death metal song. Black Tears is sung with clean vocals in its entirety however it's very short tune. Velvet Dreams is my fav on the album, it's melodic death metal with great guitar harmonies. To sum it up, Purgatory Afterglow is a major step toward more sophisticated metal than the one band presented before. It's still brutal but at some points it turns into another direction, more classical metal filled with passion and nostalgia. Unleashed or Dismember didn't want to explore these territories leaving them to Edge Of Sanity. And they absolutely made it.