MESMERISED

I have a lot of time for Atrox. It took me a lot time and a substantial amount of money to get this CD. It is therefore a shame that it is a turkey.

Mesmerise was releaed around the time of the debut albums from Funeral, Theatre Of Tragedy and The Third And The Mortal. All four bands had female vocals and that caused a bit of a stirr in the metal scene at that time. It invented a whole new metal scene called Goth Metal, no less. Atrox was the smallest and most unknown band in this scene and this album was poorly marketed. After some listening to this album, the lack of quality is the reason for the lack of commercial success. Where the other three bands created plenty of melodies and variations, this album is like listening to six hours of Hare Krishna or Buddhist monks. This album has one tune throughout, sometimes suplemented by some electronica and some haunting female vocals. The female vocals is not to my liking, although I am not saying it is bad. The guitars are unimaginative and stale. The same goes for the drums and the bass. That's about it, really. Atrox went on to do better things....... I hope ! I also bought their other albums....... This one is no good, though.

1.5 stars