Um dos melhores álbuns de death do ano, por estes lados. Foge muito às composições que utilizam apenas guitarras, bateria e baixo para acrescentar um ambiente, porventura, épico e sempre apostado numa atmosfera muito própria de composições imprevisíveis. Ora mais agressivo, ora mais calmo, não sei se chega a ser directamente melódico mas creio que quem aprecia essa vertente, vai gostar também disto. Em termos vocais e instrumentais é muito equilibrado, sendo que não tenho grandes defeitos a apontar-lhe.
Tracklist:
01. Into Oblivion
02. Metamorphosis
03. Oracle
04. Ex
05. World in Silence
06. Reincarnation of the Damned
07. Fields of Nihil
08. Dialogue with the Dead
09. Wolves' Choir
10. The Age to Come
11. Humanitas
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Neogenesis is a rather nifty concept; if I don’t say so myself. It’s the very first “literary concept album” which means that it is not only a rather bombastic death metal album, but that it’s also a novelization of about 106 pages (which is quite short compared to my lengthy prattlings) that focus on the end of the world and what lies beyond. It’s certainly a “novel” concept, penned by the band’s own axeman Carl Stjarnlov and is certain to be something of a collector’s item, regardless of the strength of the book. Even though I’d love to review the book, I’m not quite sure how my editor would feel about that and don’t have a copy of it anyway; so let’s just focus on the metal. And that, they do deliver; just as well as you might expect for a band who incorporated a full choir and string orchestra, and composed over three-hundred separate audio tracks for their disc. One might say that they’re trying to give Septic Flesh and The Monolith Deathcult some competition here and that would certainly seem to be the case, at least from first glance.
But while the album is certainly chock full of powerful atmospheres that contain the same manner of chanting found in current Rotting Christ, (Metamorphosis) as well as sweeping choirs backing drum-blasts (Oracle) and film soundtrack-esque soundscapes, (Ex, Humanitas) it is not symphonic death metal, nor is it even comparable to the acts I’ve mentioned. These Swedes have done nothing more than an attempt to jazz up their slightly experimental approach to Swedish death metal and they’ve done so with nothing sacrificed. The disc still comes out swinging, and lays out quite a few hard hits before it’s said and done with. “World In Silence” comes off just as venomous as it is catchy, and with notable attention to detail and an overall notion of giving a damn about how the music comes across to the listener. Even though the guitars can sound quite mechanical at times, these guys bring an injection of black metal with them that only adds to the ferocity of death metal barely being contained on this record. There are plenty of chugs, foreboding melodies and enough structure in these tracks to make your brain do a couple of backflips, and then they throw in the clean vocal portion on “Fields Of Nihil” which you realize that you just don’t mind, because it feels like it belongs there.
It’s obvious that these guys aren’t trying to do anything on Neogenesis that appeals to any one demographic. They’re definitely doing it to please themselves and you can tell that they truly believe in this work. As a matter of fact; they believe in it so much that they’ve devoted several tour dates to the live performance of this record in its entirety. But they’ve got every right to believe in such powerful material as “Dialogue With The Dead”, “Into Oblivion” and the denouement entitled “The Age To Come.” It delivers on every facet that the band is known for, and then some. Blistering and brutal, yet melodic and at times even beautiful; it’s an unexpected work of art that won’t be soon forgotten. Neogenesis is most certainly a notable foothold in the band’s legacy. I just wish that I had a chance to read the book too. (Eric May)
http://newnoisemagazine.com/album-revie ... eogenesis/
