Edge of Sanity

Edge of Sanity was a band that jumped straight to the top of my "Need It" list without hearing a single note of their music. You'll understand why in a moment...

Dan Swanö, founder and (until recently) vocalist of EOS, is something of a God in the Scandinavian metal scene. Not only has he formed several side projects (Nightingale, Pan-Thy-Monium, Bloodbath, and his own solo album), he's produced several death/black metal bands from the Great Frozen North. It could be argued that the success of "Gothenberg" metal (i.e. melodic thrash music with "Cookie Monster" death vocals, a genre that encompasses such bands as Opeth, In Flames and Katatonia) rests squarely on his shoulders. But then, what do I know?

"Unorthodox"

  1. "The Unorthodox" (0:38)
  2. "Enigma" (7:01)
    • a) The Blessing
    • b) Celestial Dissension
    • c) The Loss of Hallowed Life--instrumental
  3. "Incipience to the Butchery" (1:57)
  4. "In the Veins/Darker than Black" (4:38)
  5. "Everlasting" (5:29)
  6. "After Afterlife" (4:34)
  7. "Beyond the Unknown" (3:50)
  8. "Nocturnal" (5:30)
  9. "A Curfew for the Damned" (4:27)
  10. "Cold Sun" (2:52)
  11. "The Day of Maturity" (3:42)
  12. "Requiscon by Pace"--instrumental (1:24)
  13. "Dead but Dreaming" (4:00)
  14. "When All is Said" (6:49)

The band's sophomore release finds them still searching for that special sound that would transform the world of Swedish death metal. It begins with a mini-metal opera "Enigma", which is pretty cool (The Who, eat your heart out!) Other songs run the gamut from fast to slow, with hints of Celtic Frost and Slayer here and there. Damn fine music, and although it does get overshadowed by their later masterpieces, Unorthodox is an album that any death metal band would be proud to have in their collection.

"The Spectral Sorrows"

  1. "The Spectral Sorrows"--instrumental (1:44)
  2. "Darkday" (4:27)
  3. "Livin' Hell" (4:18)
  4. "Lost" (4:34)
  5. "The Masque" (6:38)
  6. "Blood of My Enemies" (3:28)
  7. "Jesus Cries" (4:48)
  8. "Across the Fields of Forever" (6:07)
  9. "On the Other Side" (5:43)
  10. "Sacrificed" (3:50)
  11. "Waiting to Die" (3:11)
  12. "Feedin' the Charlatan" (2:45)
  13. "A Serenade for the Dead"--instrumental (2:22)

This album, released in 1993, is where the "Gothenberg" sound really took hold. The first four tracks are plain old death metal, but then it gets interesting. VERY interesting. Lots of thrashy riffs, chunka-chunka guitars, and a buzzsaw bass that sounds like a hornet's nest ready to attack. There's a decent amount of variety here -- for instance, "Sacrificed" is a gothic, clean-vox tune with a heavy Sisters of Mercy vibe. Cool stuff! Oh yeah, special thanks to Ralf for sending this CD my way.

"Until Eternity Ends"

  1. "Until Eternity Ends" (4:02)
  2. "Eternal Eclipse" (2:53)
  3. "Bleed" (2:08)
  4. "Invisible Sun" (3:21)

Nice little EP featuring four outtakes from Spectral Sorrows, including a cover of The Police's "Invisible Sun", which also appears on the Black Mark Tribute compilation. (Speaking of tributes, Mr. Swanö also did a song for Holy Dio.) The songs here are a bit more accessible than normal, and makes a good starting point for sampling the band's sound.

"Purgatory Afterglow"

  1. "Twilight" (7:51)
  2. "Of Darksome Origin" (5:02)
  3. "Blood-Colored" (4:00)
  4. "Silent" (5:05)
  5. "Black Tears" (3:14)
  6. "Elegy" (3:57)
  7. "Velvet Dreams" (7:09)
  8. "Enter Chaos" (2:23)
  9. "The Sinner and the Sadness" (3:06)
  10. "Song of Sirens" (2:32)

I've mentioned before how I came late to the whole 90's metal scene, being as how it all got displaced by grunge & hip-hop in America, and it wasn't until I got on the Internet that I discovered how many great metal bands were still in existence, and how many more had popped up. Lots of this musical exploration was facilitated by mp3s, which I found in droves...except, oddly enough, Edge of Sanity. And considering how widely hailed this band was on metal review pages, it was strange how NONE of the various mp3 sites featured ANY EoS tunes at all. (This was before Napster took over the world, I should point out...)

Finally, DJ_Darrin of Seismic Radio came to my rescue and played a few tracks from this CD. Hot damn!! This is a monster disc, Gothenberg Metal at its finest. Sounds quite similar to In Flames, but that statement should be backwards because EoS came first, after all. :) One very annoying bit -- the end of the disc includes 11 blank tracks of 5-10 seconds each, followed by......NOTHING!!! Aaaarrghh!!!!!

However, I didn't get much of a chance to listen to this disc, because just a few days later I got:

"Crimson"

  1. "Crimson" (40:00)

Hmm, one song...FORTY MINUTES LONG...you see why this band became such an instant priority? ;-)

Once again, it was DJ_Darrin (or was it boB? Might have been...) who introduced me to this masterpiece via his Seismic Radio show. The effect, to say the least, was jaw-dropping. You see, unlike most other songs of this length (notably Jethro Tull, Yes, and Fates Warning, which all tend to go through several distinct "movements"), this one follows the SAME MUSICAL THEME for its entirety! Oh sure, it goes off on inevitable tangents here and there, but always returns to the same basic chord progression. And, dang me, the whole thing FLOWS like nothing else I've heard before; it feels more like eighteen or twenty minutes, instead of forty.

Of course, such a brilliant piece of music is too much for one man to handle...which is why Mike Akerfeldt of Opeth contributes vocals & guitar to the slower parts. But between the two of them, this amazing composition ranks right up there with...oh, I dunno...Beethoven, perhaps? Mozart? Narrowing it down to the rock genre, this song ranks a solid #3 on the all-time list, surpassed only by ELP's "Karn Evil 9" and Yes's "Close to the Edge". Nothing else comes close...and I do mean NOTHING. IT IS THAT GOOD. In fact, in the course of time, this song might even creep to the #1 spot. And never, EVER did I think I'd say that about ANY metal song. Never. Until now.

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