CRIMSON

I will open with two very sweeping statement: first off, this is a masterpiece, and should be in anyone's books really. I mean, anyone who merges death metal and prog this perfectly deserves four star credit, and anyone who transforms that idea into a 40-minute prog metal tour de force deserves even more credit; secondly, this is in my top 10 albums ever created by anyone. In that list is Still Life by Opeth, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles and Pawn Hearts by Van Der Graaf Generator. With that, you kind of get the idea of how good this album is in my humble opinion.

As I mentioned above, this is untamed death metal augmented with many prog touches. Some of the most brutal moments in prog lie within this disk, so don't approach it thinking you are going to hear another Thick As A Brick, because that just ain't what this album is about. It's almost as if the same brainwave that hit Mike Oldfield and Ian Anderson some 20-odd years before hit Dan Swano in the same way. The point I am trying to get at is that this music is no clone. Expect complete originality. Some of the most beautiful melodies in prog metal also lie within, and most are delivered in a splendid manner in the form of clean vocals from both Dan Swano and guest appearance Mikael Akerfeldt. On top of the brutality, beautiful melody and originality, great guitarwork, riff usage and technicality are also embedded into the song. Yep, this is exciting stuff, and has almost everything a fan of this sort of music could ask for.

Now onto the actual music. I have no complaints whatsoever, so let's just get that out of the way. It's hard to describe this disk musically because there is nothing really specific to the style. We have more traditional elements in the mix, like classically influenced solos and some jazz influence in the quieter sections (those elements are actually evident in most progressive death metal, and they sound just as awesome on here) and the riffs bare a strong atonal value in some areas. The quieter parts are also not very few and far between, making it easier on the ears for that of those unfamiliar with death metal. One thing I must comment on is that most of the sections have a kind of finality to them, i.e. ending on a perfect cadence. This means that, like Green Carnation's "Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness", the songs could work on there own. However, they also work very well flowing into each other. It's a very hard trait to achieve, but Swano pulled it off. Excellently, as well.

The riffs are punchy, the vocals clear, the lyrics great and imaginative, the drumming just as metal drumming should be, the songwriting inventive all round yet down to earth at the same time, the solos otherworldy... I repeat again, everything on this album is perfect and I don't have a single complaint. If you are interested in progressive death metal and are looking for something a bit more pretntious and bombastic than Cynic and Pestilence, but more brutal and aggressive than Opeth and Estatic Fear, then this is definitely a must have for you. If you already own Still Life, Symbolic and Lateralus and want another masterpiece of progressive metal to your collection, then this is also a must have. 5 stars, easily.