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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
66.6% of an hour of power., December 10, 2005
I remember when I wrote my review for Carcass' _Heartwork_ back in 2003 saying that I wasn't much of a death metal fan. While I still don't frequent the record stores looking for every CD made by some half-baked Deicide clone (or Deicide themselves for that matter), I've become much more liberal toward the genre in the last two years. And one thing gathered through my countless hours of internet perusal, while not at my job at the hospital, is the unanimous praise for Edge of Sanity's _Crimson_.
_Crimson_ is really not all that hard to describe. Just imagine a band playing melodeath a la Dark Tranquility/In Flames with the conceptual progressive tendencies of Rush and Genesis. It is not so much an album as it is a 40 minute song (yes you read that correctly - a 40 minute song). The concept deals with an extremely far future in which the human race is about to meet its quietus because of its inability to have any more children. Lo and behold, a girl is born to a world that has given up hope. Is she mankind's redemption - or something else?
Musically, I say without hesitation that _Crimson_ is one of the most amazing metal compositions I have ever heard. It has a huge epic atmosphere that has the feel of sitting in a nice cozy chair and reading a great novel. One minute you'll hear a fusillade of blast beats and buzzsaw guitars - like the battle hymn for a futuristic warlord. The next you'll hear a somber and otherworldy acoustic respite that wouldn't sound out of place on a Mike Oldfield album. One of my favorite things about _Crimson_ is how you'll hear one passage, think you won't hear it again, and then it pops up on you like a welcome friend 20 minutes later.
Being a metal fan for 18 years, I admit with more than a little shame for not checking out the ultra-prolific and multi-talented Dan Swano's work sooner. Having recently read about him on the always informative Wikipedia, I found out that throughout his career he has been involved in no fewer than 30 differnet bands. Hard to believe for a man who will be only 33 years old this coming March. James Brown the hardest working man in show business?
Sez who?
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Swedish Death at its best, October 6, 2004
Here we go, 40 non-stop minutes of pure agressive Death. Such a masterpiece...an opus every metal bands dream to compose. Unfortunately, no one will! (Haha) It's raw, but at the same time refined and intelligent. To totally get the whole thing (coz these 40 minutes contain lots of transitions), it needs a couple of spins in your cd player...and lots of time. Unlike Crimson II, the first one is one big track of 40 mins and not cut in sections. What amazes me the most is that...being a musician myself, it would have been easy to write a big suite of different riffs that goes on for 40 minutes. Here, it's different. Some parts come back, wisely placed, to get a real song structure. A must to have.Sincerely.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Epic Of All Epics, December 30, 2004
Well, it's my 100th review here at Amazon so I figured I'd review one of my favorite records of all time, The indominable Crimson by Edge Of Sanity. I only hope my words can do this incredible piece of art justice.
The epic starts with an explosion of brutal growls courtesy of Dan Swano and the ultra-distorted guitars trademark of Edge Of Sanity. Then smoothly transitions into a more typical melodeath riff before dissipating into an acoustic interlude. Within these few short minutes it becomes apparent that every member of Edge Of Sanity is in a class of all their own. Dan Swano may be the best vocalist I've ever heard. Great at singing and exponently better at death vox. Also a pretty damn good guitarist and songwriter. The rhythm section holds down well and adds the extra strength that is the foundation of EOS's power. Following the acoustic part is more death compositions that slowly build tempo until they errupt in a fury of blastbeats and machine-gun riffs with Mike Ackerfeldt of Opeth leading the charge. After this there is a fluctuation of softer and heavier parts that finally culminate in the chorus. Speaking of the chorus, those are some of the catchiest riffs I've ever heard, hell, just thinking about them right now gets them stuck in my head. What follows is more ups and downs of heaviness and tempo with the chorus reverberating occasionlly until the song reaches it's monumentuous end. I don't know if I did the album justice, but that's the best I got. The only thing I have left to say is out of anything I've ever reviewed, this recieves my highest recommnedation of them all.
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