The following band I’m going to write about is a band that has been running for many years now. They’ve become old fish in the pond. When I talk about Werk 80 and Totessehnsucht, the fans know it. Atrocity is one of the leading bands with innovative death metal combined with several other styles. They’ve set an own path and each record has been in my opinion innovative. Now, 2004, they’ve released their latest piece of work called Atlantis, and I’m going to try to give you a brief overview of this album, that you certainly have to listen several times before knowing all the hidden secrets.
This track is the distinct opener of a masterpiece. I expected standard stuff, but I was wrong. It’s very fast with brakes and fills that clench your brain and won’t come out easily. The vocals are apart with screaming/grunting like work combined with an opera voice. After a while you’ll hear a chore part and I began to think that we would get opera now, but wrong again. The instant you notice the chores, the next one you’ll be annihilated by a black metal riff that overpowers a lot of famous black metal bands. Cool track!
The second track is opening powerful, but the vocals did remind me on hardcore kind of vocals. Not like the first song, this song lacks the prominent keyboard riffs. Instead it hums in the background very pleasantly. The solo is powerful, because it’s nicely supported by the drums. The vocals differ from that hardcore like thing and more brutal screaming and grumbling.
This opens very groovy and remains groovy for long while. Strong vocal changes with brutal and clean singing and this is a quite slow song compared with the other songs. I like the grooving bass line and the screaming guitars that overrule the song. A real head nodding song!
Mixed feelings about this track, because it opens very strange, but after the intro Atrocity kicks in nicely with a real headbanging riff that made me really go freaking! Nice hooks are formed in the vocal expression and they keep on banging their guitars. After a little while the music suddenly pauses, only to come back with a very deep grunt and a real stamping riff to conclude the song, which by the way ends with a softer riff.
This track begins like a decent doom band, mixed with the synths and the slow clean vocals. Very nicely done and the place on the album is quite nice, because it’s a real cool down song after Ichor. This album is suiting me better and better.
After being rocked to sleep with the previous song, I was brutally kicked from my ecstasy with Morbid Mind, which is a real powerful blasting song, which resembles a little bit with Soilwork. The drumwork is very neat again and some parts of the song could easily been taken from the Aussie band Alchemist.
A pause in the album, because this is only an instrumental parts with grim choirs and dark synth parts. There is some talking and whispering and that’s it.
Opening very unexpected with a happy tune, which is supported by the guitars. After the dark and grim atmosphere of Omen, this sounds really happy. The title does suggest something less happy, but I couldn’t help thinking of it being happy. The song is slow and not very powerful, but that doesn’t matter, I liked it anyway
It instantly resembled with a standard nu metal riff in the beginning, but after 15 seconds the drums and the vocals changed that. The construction of the riffs resembles the same writing style as Crematory. This track is a mix of doom with death metal and a little newer influences.
I expected something very brutal with a title like this and I was right. This is your first degree death metal track with a very big potential to crush some real hard heads during a live show. Grunting and blasting is the key word for this song, really good and for me certainly the best track of the album!
This track begins with a very grim intro, but the music is again really death metal like. I feared that the album would come to its end after 7 or 8 songs, but it continues to blast through my speakers!
The second pause in the album, which luckily lasts for only 1 minute, and in my opinion this track wasn’t necessary on this album.
This track is a weird track, because it’s a real stoner track, but heavily combined with nu metal. I really enjoyed this track, and if you listen well to the lyrics, you’ll notice that this is one of the last tracks of the album, because this album has been telling the whole story of Atlantis, the lost continent. Beginning with the search and eventually finding it, and how it ends.
I combine these two tracks, because they should have been pasted after each other. Aeon is again a really strange track, which I cannot describe. You should listen it for yourself to get a proper view. Ein Volk is really the most useless track, because it’s some weird noise followed by the lyrics…. Ein Volk, but it’s a nice conclusion to a real masterpiece of musical work!
I really enjoyed this album with all it’s heaviness and variety, I can only recommend to go listen for yourself and believe me, you’ll be stunned.
Track List:
1: Reich Of Phenomena
2: Superior Race
3: Gods Of Nation
4: Ichor
5: Enigma
6: Morbid Mind
7: Omen
8: Cold Black Days
9: Atlantean Empire
10: Clash Of The Titans
11: Apocalypse
12: Lost Eden
13: The Sunken Paradise
14: Aeon
15: Ein Volk
Line Up:
Vocals – Alex Krull
Guitar – Thorsten Bauer
Guitar – Mathias Roderer
Bass – Chris Lukhaup
Drums – Martin Schmidt