Crimson

Edge Of Sanity

1996

2.96

Rating

Votes

18%

25%

14%

29%

14%

Distribution

Genres: Metal Styles: Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Heavy Metal

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Album Summary

Crimson is the fifth full-length studio album by Swedish death metal band Edge of Sanity, which is their first concept album and was released in 1996 by Black Mark Production. It features a single 40-minute track, telling a story in the distant future, when human civilization is about to end. The album, which features Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt, received substantial critical acclaim, and is considered by most fans to be Edge of Sanity's finest achievement. A sequel, Crimson II, was released in 2003 and picks up directly where the first album left off. Both albums were remixed, edited and split to fit together on one CD for release on the 2006 compilation When All Is Said. Digital releases of the record feature nearly identical edits and splits. While the album was originally pressed on vinyl upon release in 1996, it was later reissued with Crimson II as a double vinyl in 2003. This version splits the song in half, the parts running 18:38 and 21:04 respectively. The record was both remixed and remastered by Dan Swanö in 2025. Both new editions of the album were released by Century Media on June 6, 2025.

Reviews

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Rating: All 5★ 4★ 3★ 2★ 1★

Length: All Short Long

Mar 04 2026 Author

Staight down the center for this genre of metal, which just isn't my favorite. Certainly competent and well performed for what it is.

Mar 05 2026 Author

Popped this on in my headphones and in the first 15 seconds had a “No!” reaction. Under normal circumstances I would have shut this off, put on some Ray Conniff to clear my palate and moved on. But since this is an “assignment” from a 1001 listener, I kept listening. A couple songs in I must have acclimatized to the extreme environment of Swedish death metal and really got into this album! While I was unable to follow along with the story I did pop the lyrics up now and again to get some idea of what I was listening to, and during a second listen read the Wikipedia synopsis which gave a nice overview of the bizarre narrative. While the death metal initially was a hurdle, once over that I was really enjoying this concept album. The runtime is just right for dabbling in death metal. Great suggestion!

Mar 07 2026 Author

A total bridge between 80s and 90s metal, and stuff like Slipknot. Never heard an album that reminded me of so many things at once. Great fun.

Mar 03 2026 Author

Death metal isn’t really my thing but you do have to just take as step back and admire this album. Deserves to be on the list.

Mar 05 2026 Author

I really need to get my death metal knowledge up, because every single album one of these I've listened to has slapped magnificently. As has been the case for almost every other metal concept album, no fucking clue what this is about, but I like how it sounds.

Mar 05 2026 Author

Not my go to genre, but I liked this. Very talented musicians. The grunting singing is my my favorite but I thought the story was intriguing. Good stuff.

Mar 06 2026 Author

I dig it. I think I'm finally appreciating metal.

Mar 08 2026 Author

5 4 Banger

Mar 06 2026 Author

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Crimson, pt.8

Mar 09 2026 Author

I generally like the metal that I get on here, but this one felt a bit generic. The low, atonal screaming really didn't help anything, though I often thought the music was reasonably good 3/5

Mar 02 2026 Author

Oh we're already back to this kind of metal album eh?

Mar 05 2026 Author

Melodic death metal, progressive death metal. Me ha aburrido. Un 2.