PINK FLOYD: The Dark Side of the Moon

Produced by Pink Floyd

Released: 1973


In commemoration of the passing of Richard Wright this week, The Sound Cellar has decided to take a look at what is undoubtedly his greatest work. Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon almost defies reviewing because it's so well known and so important that almost everyone has an opinion of it but there's no way to deny that this is one of rock music's defining elements, an immaculately conceived album that employed the cutting edge of musical and recording technology of the time and an unsurpassed masterpiece of progressive rock.



This was Pink Floyd's first full-fledged concept album, a dark journey through the human psyche that maps a path through insanity, beginning and ending with a heartbeat (the modified kick drum of Nick Mason) and winding its way through birth, death, the loss of youth, greed, despair and musings on the nature of madness itself. Tape loops and synthesised sounds helped to complete the band's vision, many of which were pieced together by the band and sound engineer Alan Parsons from taped interviews during the recording process. The Dark Side of the Moon was a portrait of a band using every ounce of new gadgetry available to them to create something that had not been attempted before, and it worked.

Unlike most of the band's work prior, the material on The Dark Side of the Moon was focused and linear, a successful reining-in of the ridiculous pretensions of albums like Atom Heart Mother that just rambled pointlessly, but without losing their progressive aspects. The compromise to more conventional songwriting did Pink Floyd far more good than harm and crystalised their vision for this album. Everything about this is just masterful, from the perfect harmony of Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright's uncannily similar voices in "Time" to the bass-driven plod of "Money" to the magnificent "Us and Them", one of the Floyd's career highlights.

While previous releases hinted at their genius and later volumes had some transcendental moments, The Dark Side of the Moon is where everything came together in total unison, an album for the ages the likes of which will never be seen again.

1. Speak to Me
2. Breathe
3. On the Run
4. Time
5. The Great Gig in the Sky
6. Money
7. Us and Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse

Rating: 100%

THE HAUNTED: Versus

Produced by Tue Madsen and The Haunted

Released: September 22


It's frustrating being a fan of The Haunted because you just don't know if what they release is going to blow you away or leave you wanting to blow them away. The first album was rather good, the second OK and the third was rubbish. Then on rEVOLVEr they came storming back with one of 2004's best before throwing everyone a curve-ball with The Dead Eye, a kind of sludgy, semi-concept off-the-wall piece that was nothing like anything they'd done before and successfully polarised their audience into those who thought it was a masterpiece (like me) and those who detested it with all their being (plenty of others). Album number six is probably going to do the same.

In a nutshell, while Versus is being promoted as a return to basics, it is essentially a combination of the groove-laden melodic thrash of earlier times and the more experimental parts of The Dead Eye with metalcore thrown in. "Moronic Colossus" is a thunderous metal assault as album opener, with a sharp guitar sound and Peter Dolving's hardcore-style bark ripping out of the speakers. This is The Haunted at their metallic best, firing on all cylinders and fuelled by a enormous pounding groove. With Tue Madsen at the controls, the mix is heavy with razor-like guitar, but all the elements are in tight harmony. "Pieces" and "Little Cage" continue the onslaught. The appropriately-titled "Crusher" is nothing but a true ball of face-ripping fury played at blinding speed, perfectly placed after the creeping interlude of "Skuld", reminiscent of the darkest moments from The Dead Eye. "Ceremony" injects an element of metalcore into proceedings, a move that may not necessarily be wholly embraced by some but coming from a band with members of At The Gates -- to whom metalcore owes so much -- it's perhaps not just forgivable but completely appropriate.

Towards the tail end of the album are a couple of tracks that vary the diet. "Rivers Run" is like some kind of blending of sludge rock and thrash, underpinned by a sinister throbbing bass line, and "Iron Mask" is another song that could have been at home on the previous album. "Imperial Death March" rounds things out nicely with a fat, mid-paced, apocalyptic chopping riff and Dolving screaming his heart out.

This is a very good album from The Haunted, showing them once again to be far more than just another modern thrash band.

1. Moronic Colossus
2. Pieces
3. Little Cage
4. Trenches
5. Ceremony
6. Skuld
7. Crusher
8. Rivers Run
9. Iron Mask
10. Faultline
11. Imperial Death March

Rating: 90%

Australian Idol: 1st Finals Week

It's that time of year again, when thousands of people who know nothing about talent cast their votes for a dozen wanna bes of varying ability to end up with a nine-month pop star. Yay for Australian Idol, the glorified TV karaoke contest that seems to attract worse and more embarrassing "contestants" every year. This show is actually a guilty pleasure of mine and I've watched every series so far. I'm not as tragic as the people who actually visit the official website and make forum posts about Dicko's shirts, but for some reason I quite enjoy it. Most of the criticism stems from those who believe the show doesn't represent reality, but if you ask me it's a perfect microcosm of the music industry: a bunch of good-looking people with a modicum of talent being presented by image-makers to a gullible public to find a superstar. If that doesn't sound like the real world, somebody better find me a better explanation for how Britney Spears can go from redneck cheerleader who could barely sing to massive entertainment figure.

This year it was decided there needed to be some tweaking done, so the first thing they did was get rid of that annoying prat Mark Holden which can only be a good thing. There's probably plenty who'd like to see Kyle Lardarse go too but while I normally can't stand the guy, on this show he's on the money about 85% of the time, and that's about 84.5% more often than usual. If there's a judge who should go it's Marcia Hines, TV's perennial winner of the World's Most Ineffectual Talent Show Judge and whose vocabulary of criticism extends to "Well done", "Watch your pitch" and "You go, girlfriend" like she hasn't been living in Australia for the last 35 years. If they were serious about having a female panelist capable of offering more constructive remarks, perhaps they need someone who isn't afraid of losing her fanbase by being a bit tough. Like Deborah Conway. She'd not only rip the bad ones a new arsehole but she and Lardarse would be blueing like no one's business. TV gold that would be. The producers have brought in Ricki-Lee Coulter as third host this year for some reason, although it was probably pnly to give the older males who wouldn't normally watch the thing some eye candy as she doesn't really do anything.

To the contestants themselves, and this year there's a mix of the usual borderline talents with those who really could have something, including a pint-sized Sri Lankan woman, an over-confident Vietnamese singing teacher, a shearer with a head like a robber's dog, a Maori single mum, an easy-on-the-eye blond, three schoolkids and a trio of blokes who style themselves after rock gods. Ironically, the bottle-blond Rock Chick who seemed to be in every scene of the promo leading up to the show didn't even make the Top 12, which could be because she really wasn't good enough or because everyone was already sick of the sight of her by the time the show even started. One Gwen Stefani in the world is enough anyway.

Tonight was the first finals night, the "pointy-end" where the Top 12 strut their stuff and get progressively booted off. The theme was Idol's Idols, where each singer chose a song by their favourite artist. Without any further waffling on, this is how it went down:


Harry Nilsson was first, although he doesn't look quite so much like Nilsson now because he's shaved his beard off. Still has the hat though. He came out and sang U2, plopping himself behind a piano for effect but he's good enough not to need to pull stunts like this just yet. Odds on to win at the moment apparently, but that means nothing on this show.





Teale came out next. I haven't thought of a nickname for him because I've paid zero attention to him until now. He did Rick Price's version of "Walk Away Renee", which is strange because he looks like a guy who tries to sing Barnesy songs at parties after a few beers. Hit a high note at the end that sounded odd.




It was somewhat appropriate for The Kid to try the love theme from a disaster film, because he was a train wreck. 16-year old virgins who've never had a girlfriend trying to do huge epic love ballads is like Adam Sandler trying Shakespeare: unconvincing and utterly inappropriate. He's thoroughly marketably though, which is the whole point but he won't make the distance because his fans will do a Ricki-Lee on him.




The Shearer is awesome. He's like Andrew Strong crossed with Joe Cocker crossed with the knockabout Ocker bloke who's always down the pub singing old blues songs on karaoke night. He won't win because his head's too rough.







The Blonde Bombshell is apparently actually a redhead. She has that breathy "Happy birthday Mr President" technique that I find really irritating. Dicko suggested it's because of her Marie Osmond teeth, but I can't help but feel she's bunging in on in an attempt to be sexy. Whatever, it shits me. She won't win because she too good looking but her range is too narrow anyway.

Lardarse came up with Sexual Chocolate for the tiny Sri Lankan chick, which is good enough for me as I'll probably stop caring about her after she's out of the competition. Nevertheless, she is a bit of a powerhouse and I'm glad the judges put her through because she's one of the better ones, even with the stumble in the semi-finals. She won't win though, because she's just too ethnic-looking.

Johnny Darko sang Pearl Jam's "Better Man" like some dude getting up to do karaoke for the first time. This guy's about as likely to be an Australian Idol as I am to win the Pulitzer Prize or write a decent analogy. Dicko mentioned that he's good mates with Eddie Vedder and belts out PJ songs in his car. Perhaps he should have had a go instead. It would have sounded horrible but been good for a laugh.

Sparkle Eyes decided to sex things up a bit and went uptempo but fell flat. Her singing career is stillborn, but a spot on Neighbours beckons.

The Big Girl was so good she managed to get Lardarse out of his chair to emulate Holden and give her a "touchdown". She knocked 'em dead, but so far I've only heard her do Aretha Franklin songs which might be a liability when she has to show she can do something else later on.

The Vietnamese John Farnham blew it and then had the temerity to try and explain why he sucked. Minor success in a boy band has given him an overconfidence that will ensure he'll trip up again and again. Unlikely to win anyway, for the same reason as Prashani.

Madam doesn't need a nickname because her real name already sounds like one. She's great. IMHO, it's between her and...

Rock Guy. If there's anything stopping this dude from taking the crown it's either people will think he's too old or that he's already had his shot with the band he was in. He's too good for this show actually, and really shows up how underdone some of the others (The Kid and Sparkle Eyes in particular) are.

My best 3: Rock Guy, Madam, The Big Girl

My worst 3: The Kid, Vietnamese John Farnham, Johnny Darko

Likely bottom 3: Vietnamese John Farnham, Johnny Darko, The Shearer

Possible evictee: Vietnamese John Farnham

BURIED IN VERONA: Circle the Dead

Released: August 23

Buried in Verona is a five piece band from Sydney playing melodic metalcore. I could almost leave this review there and most people would get a good idea of what this album sounds like, but that would probably be unfair. With the demise of I Killed the Prom Queen there is probably a dozen or more Australian bands clamouring the fill the void. Buried in Verona is no doubt one of them, but the reality is that IKTPQ probably broke up at precisely the right time.

On Circle the Dead, Buried in Verona use the template that the Adelaide pace-setters cut on Music for the Recently Deceased and virtually replicate it, making a good fist of it without really doing anything with it. Quirky and unwieldly song titles that don't seem to relate to their lyrics ("Colonel Mustard...") and others stolen from The Simpsons like "Can I Borrow a Feeling?" (which always makes me laugh) aside, Buried in Verona don't really seem to have much else to add to this well-worn genre. First track "Five Bullet Russian Roulette" and the three songs after it are actually pretty full-on metal with some nice snappy soloing and catchy if predictable riffs, probably owing more to an influence from Trivium or Lamb of God than anything. Had they stuck to this sort of thing it would have still marked them as soundalikes, but possibly with somewhere to go. "Taken to the Light" however starts the rot, a commerical metalcore track so formulaic even Prom Queen would have left it alone. The story is pretty much the same for the rest of Circle the Dead really. There's little that reaches out and grabs you beyond the opening few tracks and while all of it is reasonably well put together there isn't much to Buried in Verona's take on melodic metalcore beyond rehashing familiar themes and ideas that have already been done to death. Even the "confronting" artwork is nothing more than overly dramatic emo silliness.

Metalcore as it currently exists reached saturation point some time ago and what it really needs to keep it as a viable genre is a new band to come along with something new to inject into the field. BiV doesn't do this, to their detriment. Circle the Dead is a solid album, but completely faceless among a sea of similar releases and will most likely be forgotten when another one almost the same comes out.

1. Five Bullet Russian Roulette
2. All for Nothing
3. Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Lead Pipe
4. Can I Borrow a Feeling?
5. Taken to the Light
6. Dirt Nap
7. Face of Tragedy
8. Circle the Dead
9. Don't Call Me Baby
10. For Darker Days
11. No Time to Die

Rating: 52%

PAINDIVISION: One Path

Released: September 27

With so many bands around all trying to either be certain things, break new ground or present the latest version of what's trendy, its refreshing to see there are still acts around just playing no frills heavy metal. Sydney's Paindivision is one of those bands, a band whose momentum should only gain impetus with their second album in just over a year showing plenty of development and maturity.

Paindivision's brand of straight-up heavy metal puts them somewhere in the ball park inhabited by groups like Motörhead and Accept. The production is stripped down, but clean and heavy with loud guitars churning out a good solid collection of meaty and catchy hooks. And while this is very much a guitar album, it benefits from a killer drum mix that shows off Joe Rahme's chops in this department. Several of the tracks have punchy drum intros paving the way for Stu Marshall's crunching guitar. Jordan Howe's vocals are raw and unadorned, harsh and angry with a style reminiscent of Dreadnaught, a band that these guys can sometimes sound rather like, particularly in their more aggressive moments. This technique doesn't always seem to gel with the more melodic aspects of Paindivision and Howe isn't quite as powerful as Greg Trull; conversely, however, his melodic voice in "Of Flame and Fury" is really quite effective, possibly because it just sounds so different. I could see the harshness of Howe's voice actually being a bit of a turn-off to some, which would be a shame because One Path simply abounds in good old fashioned headbanging metal.

"Flames of the Reaper" is a ball-tearer straight up, a furious ripping metal track with Howe in full cry and Marshall peeling off lightning fast guitar licks. "Face It" is also fast and heavy with a good hook and a nice "Fast" Eddie Clark-style solo in the intro. Indeed this type of description sums up a good proportion of the tracks on One Path as the band draws from its love of classic heavy metal to serve up chunks of driving, catchy riffage like that in "Nightmare" or the stumbling, dirty blues-inspired "Wasting Life". Marshall's leads are sweet and his melody lines in the cover of "Balls to the Wall" actually sound rather like Gary Moore's Wild Frontier era with a hint of him in the closing instrumental "The Victory March" also. Paindivision has put together another good album here, paying respects to their influences but doing very much their own thing and while the vocals might not be to everyone's taste it is otherwise hard to fault.

One Path is one hard hitting heavy metal album.

1. The Gates of Ashen Wake
2. Flames of the Reaper
3. Face It
4. Beyond the Pain
5. Nightmare
6. Wasting Life
7. One Path
8. Of Flame and Fury
9. Balls to the Wall
10. The Victory March
11. Unchain Me (live)

Rating: 82%

CRYOGENIC: ego-noria

Produced by Tony Jarrett

Released: 1999

Cryogenic was unquestionably Sydney's number one metal band for a couple of years and their second album was a way for them to prove their true mettle. Complete with a unique die-cut cover that was truly an original if a problematic touch, ego-noria was the culmination of the band's achievements up to that point.

ego-noria begins with a face-ripping fury as "Analysis" kicks open the door. With no more than a tiny pause, "Directionally One" continues to tear the place apart, meaty riffs and a full-throated war cry teaming with a thunderous rhythm section and some excellent production to help the damage along. Strangely however, for a band that sounds so pissed off, ego-noria is a strikingly positive record. Within 18 months they had gone from a popular pub band to playing the country's largest stages with Slayer and the Big Day Out, and much about ego-noria was a reflection of their success in the years leading up to it.

Ego-noria showed a band whose talent had developed and whose outlook had matured in the period since their previous album Suspended Animation had been released less than two years before. Darren Maloney sounds much more comfortable on this, making a fuller use of his vocal talent and injecting a strong clean style into his normal bullroar assault. This is also true for the rest of the band, now comfortable enough to add some subtler, introspective tracks like "T.Y.T.D. (Cliffo)", about the suicide of a close friend, or "Shock Value" along the more rapacious thrash of "Death by Misadventure" for example with its fearsome, black metal style guitar, although "Redneck" showed that they hadn't quite outgrown their yob aspect just yet.

There was still something of the Pantera about the feel and execution of Cryogenic's music on this album, but the progression toward something more of their own style was evident and ego-noria was most certainly a world-class metal album for its time. Had they decided to continue in this vein instead of the questionable route they took from this point their next album may have been very special indeed.

1. Analysis
2. Directionally One
3. Death by Misadventure
4. Conspiracy Theory
5. Hate My Head
6. Fall On
7. T.Y.T.D. (Cliffo)
8. Full Grown State
9. Stalemate
10. Redneck
11. Shock Value

Rating: 87%

DRAGONFORCE: Ultra Beatdown

Produced by Karl Groom, Herman Li and Sam Totman

Released: August 25, 2008

Back when I reveiwed Inhuman Rampage I suggested that it sounded almost exactly like the one before it, Sonic Firestorm. As that album then went on to become a surprise smash hit, it was pretty unlikely that DragonForce was going to dick with such a successful formula very much. It takes all of about ten seconds of Ultra Beatdown to realise that this is another continuation of what they've been doing now for the past three albums, melodic power metal at a furious gallop, laden with lightning fast and enormously long guitar solos and dripping with lyrical cheese.

With the shortest track on Ultra Beatdown clocking in at 5 minutes and 20 seconds, it's very clear that reining things in this time around has not been a DragonForce priority. In fact it could be that the success of Inhuman Rampage has just encouraged them to push the envelope of ridiculous hyperspeed style over substance even further. While it's true that the band has actually incorporated a few touches of melodic rock and even managed a couple of slower passages here, it's also very much more of the same: endless duelling lead breaks, guitar/keyboard battles, never-ending double kicks, ultra-polished melodies and shiny harmonies, and all of it repeated again and again. If DragonForce weren't already responsible for some of the most contrived music in recent memory then Ultra Beatdown certainly gives them that distinction, with teflon-coated production so bright you need sunglasses to listen to it. To top it all off, the entire package just doesn't seem as memorable as what they've done previously, which isn't that surprising as they've pretty much just been rehashing "My Spirit Will Go On" for three albums now.

Ultra Beatdown is as much fun as any other DragonForce album but the fun doesn't last very long. Like their carefully calculated and choreographed live shows, this is a band that has become a slave to their own formula to the point where there are no surprises left, and no inspiration.

1. Heroes of Our Time
2. The Fire Still Burns
3. Reasons to Live
4. Heartbreak Armageddon
5. The Last Journey Home
6. A Flame for Freedom
7. Inside the Winter Storm
8. The Warrior Inside

Rating: 50%

SLIPKNOT: All Hope is Gone

Produced by David Fortman and Slipknot

Released: August 25

First of all I have to admit that I am not what could be described as a Slipknot "fan", but I don't hate them either. When I heard their first album at a friend's place years ago, I wondered why it took ten guys to make an album that sounded like five or six blokes at the most. I still wonder why they need a sampler and a DJ and a drummer and two percussionists, but there's no real reason Iron Maiden needs three guitarists either. The masks I can live with. Most performers adopt some kind of mask on stage in any case, even if it isn't a physical one, and legends like KISS, Alice Cooper, King Diamond, Bowie and dozens of others have made careers out of similar gimmicks so that aspect is really a moot point. Musically, both Slipknot and Iowa were far edgier, heavier and just more dangerous sounding than any of their generic counterparts like Mudvayne, Disturbed, Papa Roach or any of the myriad other clones that came in the wake of Korn could ever have hoped to have been, and there could be no doubting their influence and popularity. Slipknot probably turned more fans onto metal than any other band since Pantera, and have been about as contentious.

After their spectacular early success the wheels began to fall off, with key members spending valuable time on other projects and Joey Jordison playing drums for anyone who'd let him while he drank whatever he could get his hands on. Somehow though, possibly through the power of contractual obligation, Slipknot has held on and returned for a fourth bite of the cherry with the perhaps prophetically-titled All Hope is Gone. Their legions of fans have put this on the top of the charts within a day of release, probably even before most of them had a chance to listen to it, because if they had some of them may have been less eager to add this to their collections.

".execute." starts the album as a nice piece of dark atmospherics (Craig Jones and Sid Wilson still have to do something I suppose) leading into the very promising "Gematria (The Killing Name)", groove-laden, heavy and politically-charged with a modern thrash feel. It's a good beginning, but one immediately tempered by "Sulfur", a generic metalcore song that any band could do. And so it goes for the rest of the album. For every arse-ripping barrage like "Butcher's Hook", the awesome "This Cold Black" or the outstanding title track that shares the honours with the opener as the best thing on here, there's other songs that leave you wondering what they were thinking. "Dead Memories" is some kind of industrialised emo power ballad mess. Then there's "Snuff", where the band ditches any trace of integrity as an aggressive and scary metal beast and makes a grab for the mainstream rock radio market in the same way that, say, Limp Bizkit did with "Behind Blue Eyes". This is even more ridiculous however, because it's almost impossible to imagine a bunch of guys wearing boilersuits, Pinocchio noses and rapist's masks with nine inch nails sticking out of them doing a convincing acoustic love ballad. It's just goofy beyond comprehension.

Overall too, even the better songs feel like they were just slapped together piecemeal from ideas they had left over and a few they borrowed from other bands. David Fortman has done an admirable job on the production side, however, especially with a more distinguishable separation between Jordison's drum efforts and those of the percussionist duo, something that hasn't been captured all that well in the past (note "Wherein Lies Continue" in particular for this). Even so, most of the time it sounds like Fortman was the only one trying that much, and it could well be that Slipknot just doesn't have it in them anymore.

Slipknot used to be leaders. Now as half of them teeter on the brink of middle age, they're just throwing together a bunch of trendy ideas to help fund their other bands or their retirement. At least Metallica lasted four albums before they started losing the plot, and at least they still care enough to try and make a decent album this time around.

1. .execute.
2. Gematria (The Killing Name)
3. Sulfur
4. Psychosocial
5. Dead Memories
6. Vendetta
7. Butcher's Hook
8. Gehenna
9. This Cold Black
10. Wherein Lies Continue
11. Snuff
12. All Hope is Gone

Rating: 65%

CONTROL DENIED: The Fragile Art of Existence

Released: 1999

When you talk legends in the extreme metal world, there's few who can stand alongside the late Chuck Schuldiner for the things he brought to the form. Death remains one of the most important metal bands to have ever existed and their legacy looms large over the genre that was named after them like a colossus. Control Denied was Schuldiner's last musical venture, a project originally begun in 1996 before he iced it to produce the final Death album The Sound of Perserverence. Also featuring three other former Death members in the shapes of Shannon Hamm, Richard Christy and Steve DiGiorgio, The Fragile Art of Existence was either a continuation of that group or a completely new band (the truth will now never be known) but there did seem to be more of a "band" feel to the album than there was with Death.

Schuldiner still loomed over the project as principal songwriter, lead guitarist and co-producer but the vocals are handled by Tim Aymer, a refreshing move. Apart from this, there isn't a great deal else to distinguish The Fragile Art of Existence from much of Death's late-period work (the last album in particular) except that the overall sound leans more towards truly progressive power metal. Each of the eight tracks, most of which run for more than seven minutes, contain the usual Schuldiner hallmarks of intricate riff structure, quirky arrangements and blazing guitar passages. Here though his occasionally overbearing hand seems to have been reined in a little. That said, Control Denied's music lacks a few hooks and while the playing is solid (and with this line-up, how could it be anything else?) it places it sounds like a bunch of session musicians working together rather than a band playing.

Despite this criticism, The Fragile Art of Existence is a great album that should have been the beginning of a new chapter in Chuck Schuldiner's musical journey. Tragically, it became his epitaph, the final curtain call for a true musical visionary.

1. Consumed
2. Breaking the Broken
3. Expect the Unexpected
4. What if..?
5. When the Link Becomes Missing
6. Believe
7. Cut Down
8. The Fragile Art of Existence

Rating: 92%

VITAL REMAINS: Dawn of the Apocalypse

Released: 1999

Released within months of what many believed would see the beginning of the End of Days, Dawn of the Apocalypse sprawls across the extreme genre like a gigantic spider casting webs at everything that strays near and weaving them into a fine patchwork. From blasting torrents to darkly intricate passages often in the same song, Vital Remains leave no stone unturned in their quest to produce the most varied and intersting albums they can create, and this one is no disappointment.

With a bit of good old chanting to get underway it's cutting loose time when "Black Magick Curse" begins charting the way forward into Vital Remains' spectacularly creative death metal vision. Next is the massive title track which typifies the album: sprawling arrangements, bizarre time signatures and instrumentation, like th overlying acoustic parts which sound like there's two songs playing at the same time! There's moments like this scattered throughout, stunning little bits of innovation that make you sit up and take notice. As usual for these guys too, the songs go for a long, long time so even though there's only nine songs here you get about an hour's worth of listening and there's never a dull moment.

Abysmally sinsister vocals, enormous riffs and intricately interlaced song structures which are almost abstract at times makes Dawn of the Apocalypse another vital entry in the Vital Remains catalogue.

1. Intro
2. Black Magick Curse
3. Dawn of the Apocalypse
4. Sanctity in Blasphemous Ruin
5. Came No Ray of Light
6. Flag of Victory
7. Behold the Throne of Chaos
8. The Night has a Thousand Eyes
9. Societe des Luciferiens

Rating: 89%