I have a confession to make. I traded Emperor's "IX Equilibrium" for this CD. Yep, I changed my mind about it. After good amount of time passed since its release. After all the buzz, dust and fanfares settled down. After my own initial excitement, during which I wrote my overly enthusiastic and rave review, has calmed, I realized that it didn't move me as I thought it did, and much of its appeal has watered down. It is still a good album in its own right, but it doesn't suit my tastes anymore. Emperor's new black/death fusion made their attack more precise and brutal than ever, but now I think that it also made them clinical, too high on technicality and too short on emotion. Usually, it is something that death metal bands may get accused of, but it's the reason why "IX Equilibrium" failed to keep me affected in the long run as much as Emperor's earlier work did. Real emotion, after all, is what separates black metal from other extreme forms like death or grind. Emperor, however, are not a black metal band per se anymore, and I guess a part of the problem was that many fans of their previous work tried to judge it purely on black metal merits and were inevitably disappointed. Anyway, I have jumped the ship, so all you purist blokes can jeer, point your fingers and proclaim: "Hate to say I told you so, but I fuckin' told you so," and attach a bunch of other not so flattering epithets to show your contempt or accuse me of window dressing. But wait a second boys and wipe your chins because I still won't say that Emperor has no clothes. I may have expressed a revulsion of opinion about their latest work, but I think they can still command respect for having their own vision and doing whatever it is they want to do. I just hope they don't turn into a goth or a techno band or something.

If you are still reading this, let me say a few words about "Dawn of the Apocalypse." Vaguely influenced by Morbid Angel, Vital Remains firmly plaster you with huge slabs of unholy, American death metal of epic proportions. The songs' average running time is around eight minutes, so the band have a lot of room to work at, and they use it proficiently, churning out well-crafted music from start to finish. Great, crushing riffs, excellent drumming, powerful production - what else can you ask for? Because their songs are so long, they don't rely on speed too much. Instead, the full-on speeding and chaotic blasting are carefully interspersed within the slower, but no less pulverizing arrangements. To enrich the music, very classy acoustic guitars are used on two tracks. I don't know if it's some kind of emerging trend among death metal bands to use acoustic guitars, but I like it. It sounded cool when Internal Bleeding did it on their song "Rage," and it too sounded cool when Vital Remains did it here. Of course, if everybody will start doing it, then it won't be cool anymore. The new vocalist Thorn, who, despite his young age, is already a virile individual in all of his wickedness, fits in very nicely (is it appropriate to use the word "nicely" when talking about death metal?). That is, when he is not abusing various controlled substances and alcohol beverages, which is the reason he was kicked out of the band shortly after the recording of this album. Here, he even contributed a short industrialized track. And so, "Dawn of the Apocalypse" is a very fine work. Vital Remains fans should be more than happy with it, and if you are a death metal fan not familiar with this band yet, you better do so pronto.

© 2000 boris