[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_4KAGuzGgk[/youtube]
Metal Insider contributor Anthony Maisano is listening to a different metal album that was released on that day every day.
Fun fact. After this album, the band went on a long hiatus for the vocalist to complete his PhD in molecular medicine, and then for him to open up his own lab specializing in cancer research. True story. Beyond that, the album is heavy, very aggressive, and very technical thrash. It also has a bit of a strange atmosphere about it. It has random beeps and boops, and sounds like that thrown in all over give it a strange, but unique atmosphere. The riffs are really, really terrific, and more often then not, they hit a very technical level, too. It’s certainly not an album that you can listen to once and take in everything. You’ll have to give this one a few listens to really appreciate it all.For the final, trilogy part of the album, there are suddenly beautiful orchestral parts and female vocals that weren’t really on the first half. I personally liked this half of the album better, but most thrash fans would probably like the first half better.
I can’t say I cared for the vocals on this album. I think the singer was another of those ‘I’m trying REALLY hard to sound TOUGH’ thrash singers that just drag an album down by making it sound faker. This was also another one of those albums that had a whole bunch of either movie quotes, or heavily distorted random lines thrown in for the hell of it. They added nothing to the overall album. As much as I enjoyed the trilogy, second half of the album, the sudden inclusion of orchestral elements that were not present on the first half really make this seem like two very different albums that only got halfway written each and thrown together.
Favorite Tracks: “Trilogy of Knowledge – Movement I: The Lie,” “What Is but Cannot Be,” “Trilogy of Knowledge – Movement II: The Truth.”
This is a case of a good album instrumentally with a band that was trying WAY to hard to be more then, in my opinion. If the album was just the riffs and the core songs without the random movie quotes, and little random noises and such to make it sound different, it would have been a really good thrash album, but instead, it gets bogged down with this extra convoluted stuff that it doesn’t need. It’s worth a listen just because of the really cool playing, but I think the band was trying way too hard, personally. GREAT playing and riffs, so it’s worth a listen for sure, though.
