Scheitan
Travelling in Ancient Times
[Invasion]


The first thing I'll mention about the album is the fucking excellent intro. Melodic, simple, and bordering on epic, this well-done keyboard sections nicely sets up the album. Whereas I expected to be given a mid-paced and melodic black metal album following that particular intro, I was instead thrown into a most brutal mass of speed, and well done vocals. Don't let the pairs homosexual appearance ruin this album before listening to it! It's really quite vicious sounding.

While not everything here works (actually, besides tracks 1, 2, and 8, the album is terribly boring) there is enough brutality in this album to make it worth tracking down. While most Swedish bands as of today are concentrating on furthering the "Swedish Death Metal" sound (which is horribly boring), Scheitan have instead provided us with a simple, fast as fuck, and fairly sick sounding 35 minute disc.

The vocals are especially good. They sound somewhat distorted, and border between being rasped and screamed, which if you ask me works wonderfully. More bands should do this, simply because the rasped style is for the most part quite boring, and the screamed style can sound a little too comedic at times. Concentrating more on the music, everything is quite simple, with thick sounding guitars, and blazingly fast drums. The occasional addition of well done synth sections more than makes up for the lack of atmosphere.

Overall a very nice album. Something to listen to when your in a violently angry mood, yet wonderfully ambient enough to listen to while reading. The vocals have probably saved this album, and have obviously made it stand out as far superior to what it most likely is, but they are so bloody great that they deserve some credit. Of course this album becomes boring after too many a listen, but it's so horribly sick sounding, and violent, that it deserves a purchase.


© 1997 brand