On "The Last" TOD decided not to strain themselves too much and do something more plain and brutal, delivering a load of pummeling, straightforward heaviness and some simple yet infectious lead work. Well done these songs may be, but for TOD they also sound more generic, lacking in the distinctive style that "Endless Sunfall" and "Dismissed" demonstrated, and replacing it with doses of conventional "moshability." Tracks like "Dead Paradise," "Risus Mortis," and "Fatal Decay of Morbid Dreams" would be great for a mosh pit if they were played twice as fast, but that's not why I liked this band in the first place. There are still some great songs here, particularly "Ignis Sanat," "Fucking Future" and the title track, which show that TOD like to keep their teeth sharp no matter what. But then what's the deal with all the covers? Acheron, Six Feet Under, Unpure. (Why the hell would they want to cover Unpure?) Now, I don't have anything against covers. The problem is that they occupy something like a third of the album's running time, making it seem like the band did not have enough songs for a full album and decided to replenish it with these renditions.

Final verdict: not bad at all, but not the best this band is capable of.

© 2001 boris