First off, I love Usurper. Their blatant Hellhammer/Celtic Frostishness mixed with the brutality of their Übermetallion attitude caught me from the first stirrings of their debut Diabolosis. Also, the pure filthy heaviness of Scythe's guitar sound made a deep impression. That said, this disc lacks that guitar sound and it suffers for it in my ears. The tremendous riff ideas and earthshaking rhythms are still present, but they are lost in a flaccid mix. Hints of the old sound are picked up at times (on "Into The Oblong Box"), but it seems that the sound engineer just didn't capture the sound as on previous releases (actually, Scythe tells me that it was a decision to clean up the mix). Am I selfish to want the bands I dig to have the general sound they always have? Yes, blow me. But, unlike those douchebags Metallica, with the limp sound mix does NOT come a change in conviction. The songs are as interesting as ever, so this is still a very very solid metal album. Am I biased? Probably, blow me. Some guests of note make appearances on the disc, but the album stands on its own without mentioning their names (not that you don't know who they are - I'm just trying to appear nonchalant about the appearances, but they are pretty cool).

© 2001 j. mcintyre