TRIPSIS

When I first heard of Alchemist I was surprised about the combination of genres their music represented. Therefore I put much enthusiasm in the listening process and i have to admit that it payed of. The album features a hardcore root embodied by the drums and general rhythm aspects, fronted by semi-aggressive guitar riffs and a disturbing vocals interpreted ,also, in a hardcore style. The music is quite harmonic and beyond what many death metal band achieve nowadays. The production is very good and the sound has a high quality standard that not many stages can reproduce , which is why i am skeptic when it comes to live performances..however i have never seen an Alchemist live performance so I may be wrong. Obviously there is a new style of playing the guitar which focuses on it's psychedelic "capacities". The band that , in my opinion, defined this ,let's say, new level in guitar playing, is Katatonia on their 2006 record entitled "The Great Cold Distance". Like "Tripsis", Katatonia's album has a typical sound for the solo guitar which focuses on atmosphere rather than melody. What is so special than about Alchemist from this point of view? Well, the Australians play this style on a hardcore background and , I have to admit, this is one of the strangest musical experiments I have ever heard. Last, but not least, "Tripsis" has abig minus because all the songs sound alike which is not a very progressive thing at all. I am thrilled about this album and I believe it is one of the best releases of 2007.