Sweden's hopefuls return, and although I didn't think it would be possible to top a great debut album like 'Black Earth', Mike Amott and crew have done it with ease. This album has pretty much everything one would want in modern melodic death thrash: solid growls courtesy of John Liiva (ex-Carnage/Eucharist), thundering distortion, skillful soloing (not that one could expect anything else from the brethren Amott of Carcass and Armageddon fame) and the best of all the album is completely riff-tastic. It's one of those albums that comes out and makes everyone cringe because it's just that good, so expect a lot of people to throw negative criticism at it to protect themselves from feelings of utter abandon and jealousy. Unforgettable tracks here include "Beast of Man", "Sinister Mephisto", "Bridge of Destiny", and "Tears of the Dead", although there isn't a weak track on the album. The album does have a retro atmosphere, but only because it's such an instant classic (the songs are reminiscent of earlier metal but really don't sound exactly like any one band). It's unfortunate that this is on Century Media, which will undoubtedly market this to every bubblegum metal fan on the planet, but face it the band has just too much appeal to avoid the mall metal circuit.

© 2000 pizarro