JAR OF KINGDOM

Back in 1993, the Death-Metal little world entered in a conflict, a civil war between keepers of the original brutality and some more delicate musicians willing to explore further dimensions than the 1-2-3-4 / Goooore!. Pestilence, Cynic, Atheist or even Death begged to differ and claim taking their influences from jazz-rock or melodic heavy-metal. Somewhere in the south hemisphere, alone in Australia, four young musicians joined the movement. As the name suggets, Alchemist wasn't obsessed with necrophiliac serial-killers or the gentle art of ripping the guts of its enemy on the battlefield but started to sing about Abstraction, Pluto or, er, Purple.

Beginning with an threatening atmospheric guitar introduction, Abstraction soon turns to a massive charge. But it appears quickly that the band uses psychaedelic sounds effects, pays attention to the notion of arrangements and melodies and even thinks of subtlety. The same can be said about Shell on which we can hear the haunting voice of Michelle Klemke: not exactly melodic, yet striking... And the psychaedelia goes on and on, as you can hear on Jar of Kingdom kindly introduced by some hilarious pixies (are they on acid???)... Yet, the album is brutal: the first-time traveller coming from Planet Gong might appreciate the rest on the track Found, dark but calm... Just before the oriental-like riff from Enhancing Enigma, one of the strongest songs from this record! Then, another pause with the Whale (nice trio between a guitar, a toy piano and, yes, a whale)... And we go to a cosmic journey with Brismal: a view from Pluto, exploring Alpha Centauri, Charon and the macrocosm of space!

Unique in its genre (Psychaedelical Death-Metal!), Alchemist hadn't found success with this first album but they showed rare song-writing abilities, an imagination hard to be found in the death-metal fields and promising technical feats! If the ProgHead isn't afraid of roaring vocals and heavy guitars; if the MetalHead isn't afraid of... Pixies and whales, this record is an excellent addition to any music collection.