Crimson

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!

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.

Crimson is a death metal album by Swedish band Edge Of Sanity. It sounds just like a lot of Death metal albums these days. That is where I made a mistake as I did not know this album is from 1996 and already 30 years old. So this is one of the albums that created the standard for this genre and we should praise it for it.

Some prog-rock elements -- like that acoustic guitar at the end of part 1, that atonal fiddle or violin in part 2, or the echo-drenched, mystical voices at the start of part 8 -- are bringing very nice touches to this record. The fully "death metal" ingredients lack a bit of punch, admittedly. A metal album recorded in 1996 should normally sound better than this. But it's more the effect of production values being "on a budget" than a matter of studio performance, I imagine. By the way, the sound of *Purgatory Afterglow*, that Edge Of Sanity album recorded *before* this one, is significantly better, oddly enough... Apart from that minor shortcoming, some of the "non-grunted" vocal parts sound pretty good in here, the shrieked vocals around the start of part 4 were a welcome "black metal" jolt to my system, lol, and the melodic finale for the album (and sci-fi yarn), at the end of part 8, is pretty epic on a musical standpoint. All that being said, it's difficult for me to decide whether this sort of suggestion is "essential" or not, I gotta be honest here. Not because I think the genre shouldn't be represented -- I'm only a casual listener when it comes to death metal and its close stylistic affiliates, I admit it, but years of listening to stuff of all kinds have slowly taught me how to appreciate good albums in that style, at least (good albums like *Crimson*, or like Death's *Symbolic*, also in my four-star gallery). The thing is, I often feel that more recent releases in those extreme metal styles will always feel more vital for me than digging out older stuff only hardcore fans of the genre remember now. For instance, in that realm of extreme metal bands *currently* challenging genre boundaries, have you listened to Agriculture's *The Spiritual Sound*, displaying black metal which is also inspired by shoegaze, anti-folk and... buddhism??! Or Blood Incantation's *Absolute Elsewhere*, involving music made by Tangerine Dream at some point, while taking a page out of the Pink Floyd book in some other tracks? A friend of mine also tipped me off on an absolutely bonkers band called Cryptic Shift, partly inspired by Frank Zappa... I don't know, maybe the person who suggested this Edge Of Sanity album could enjoy those other records as well? To be perfectly honest, I expect most of those newer acts to sort of fade into obscurity after a while -- just like other iconic acts in that overall style from the eighties to the 2010s, who will then add up to all those other niche cult references for aficionados of the genres involved. But I guess that's what always ends up happening when you're playing "extreme" music instead of blatantly commercial stuff, right? So thanks to the user suggesting this Edge Of Sanity LP to help me filling out the blanks at least. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 80 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 101 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 205 ---- Émile, tu trouveras ma dernière réponse sous le *Inside* de Bo Burnham

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Interesting album. I don't often listen to death metal. Some of the more melodica parts, I liked a lot. When it's get to 'screamy', I tend to dislike it more. Altough it fits the genre and violent story of the music

I liked it! A cool bridge era for metal between like Iron Maiden and the very intense modern stuff

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

Not one for me. Absolutely not my kind of music.

5 4 Banger

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

Shreds

Brutals.

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

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

Falls into the standard death metal trap of being way too midrange-focused, the whole album seemingly endless chugging with no actual notes. There are some interesting hints of other genres flitting around the edges of some tracks, but they’re quickly swallowed by a wall of guitar that somehow carries zero melodic information.