Absolute Purity

Gorgeous album cover. Lovely title and aesthetics. The concept of Rutan lending his death metal guitar expertise to gothic metal with a deeply melodic ethos, and a female soprano-type as the lead role. It's brilliant. It's such a seductive narrative. But then there's always theory, and practice.

The first song is promising. Hate Eternal guitars playing majestic harmonious riffs, a guitarless verse that shows mature song-writing and arrangement, the operatic and wistful pre-chorus, and finally the hook as a triumphant marriage between the heavy riffiness and this gothic style juxtaposed. The voice can sound a bit off in places, but it may just be the production isn't perfect.

Then, there's... well, the rest of the album. What seemed like a convincing start with the opening title-track was actually the one proper good song on here. The rest is just the musical endeavor of this record shrinking, noticeably. 'The Enchanted' still retains some credibility, although the chorus always feels counter-intuitive relative to the rest of the song.

Afterwards, the suspect production becomes more apparent as the songs sound like experimental jams, like Rutan and his crew had the instrumental done and were auditioning in real time Martina Astner. It just gets progressively worse, fast: 'Silencing The Sorrow' is just untenable for a studio album, especially midway through. It'll have the listener cringe at the recording. The vocalist is a capable one. It's just the recording conditions must've been...sub-optimal.

It's a shame because there are generally fairly good ideas, some with real potential, but the vocals just weren't written and mixed in with enough hindsight as to exactly how they were going to make this sound its best. Think: think how good this record could've been if they'd tightened up the composition to about 30min (this isn't worth 45min) and made more concise and sticky songs, added a few more elements in rather than the constant one-speed death-ish riffs and soprano voice - over and over. This is supposed to be atmospheric, and it feels flat instead, for the aforementioned reasons.

There's a clear reaching for grace in music here, and attempting to achieve it in a very novel fashion, but good things take a long time, and this was rushed on a few levels from song-writing to possibly recording, and definitely mixing/production. All the credit to Rutan for thinking up the concept, but all in all, a real opportunity missed.

What an amazing album. Absolute Purity is the first album that I bought on a whim, and I couldn't have picked a better album to buy. The reason why I bought this album is because it had Erik Rutan in it and I was a big fan of Morbid Angel's 'Domination' and Hate Eternal's 'King of All Kings' and also had a female singer. Loving the technicality of Rutan's riffing and the atmosphere that female vocals provide, I decided to check it out.

The first thing that stands out on this album is how different and unexpected this album is (and I mean that in every sense). The guitars are quite technical and their are plenty of solos, but Rutan never breaks the foreboding atmosphere provided by the awesome rhythm section. The bass is surprisingly audible, which is good, because their is a lot of awesome bass work happening (Silencing the Sorrow). The drums are very well executed, with double bass in the appropriate moments, as well as excellent atmospheric tom work. When put together, these instruments create a very bleak atmosphere that, while usually being at a slow tempo, can get upbeat and ferocious like one would expect from Rutan.

Now, the part that most people seem to have a problem with, the vocals. Handled by one of the vocalists from Therion's 'Vovin', her vocals are, not surprisingly, operatic. She has a piercing voice that can hit very high notes, but often has no bass or mids in her voice (imagine Liv from Theatre of Tragedy at an octave higher). However, her voice is best when at a lower register, where she has a warm tone that enhances the music so much more. I wish that Alas had a few extra days to run over the vocals, as there are a few parts where she strains to hit the high notes.

All in all, a truly remarkable album that is in a genre all its own. While the vocals are an acquired taste at times, their is no denying the passion and depth of the music. Sounding similar to Cynic, Tristania, and My Dying Bride being stuck into a blender, Alas have created a sound all their own. Hopefully Erik will redeem himself from the recent atrocity that was 'Fury and Flames' with another masterpiece from this phenomenal band.

To many, Erik Rutan is one of the best guitarists in the Death Metal field today. This album is, however, unlike anything he’s done before or since.
Over the production is good though it could have been better. The guitars are thick yet melodic; this isn’t a complete departure from Rutans’ style, just a different interpretation of it. The leads are intricate and fast and the rhythms are polyrhythmic. Also they go from distorted to clean periodically.
The bass compliments the guitars throughout the release sprinkling bits of Classical and Jazz where appropriate. The drums are fairly bombastic, while not overly adventurous, keeping things interesting.
The vocals are outstanding. They almost don’t work in a few places and had they used another singer they might not have. They add a new level of intensity to the recording. This was a rather large gambit that ended up working out.
This is a different album as its Gothic, not Death, or Darkwave. The songs have a very classy feel to them and have a very satisfying feeling. One could argue that some of the songs drag a bit in places (about the middle of the album and on) but over all this is pretty good. One can only hope that more records come from it in the future.
This is not an easy listen either, this is a grower (as it were) and as such certainly recommended for those wanting something different in the way of Gothic Metal.

Erik Rutan is indeed an amazing guitarist and writer, whom I have vast respect for normally, but I'm afraid this was not one of his better ideas. Musically, this album is good enough, with capable rhythm section playing and his usual high standard of soloing all over it, but, well...it all sounds alike. Every song has the same midtempo feel and similar riffing, and the biggest disappointment for me was Martina Astner's vocals. Her vocal parts all sound the same as well, and as if that were not bad enough, she sounds off-key on every damn song. The lyrics are interesting, but with her singing them in such a terribly uninspired manner, there's not much life there. Erik, what possessed you? I'm not saying that everything he does has to be Hate Eternal, but at least if he's going to do something like this, at least let it be more inspired and lively. If Alas releases another album any time soon, I hope it's better than this is.