...and Death Smiled

With their second full-length ‘…And Death Smiled’, Alastis decided to step up their game and increase their pace, production and song dynamics. By now they had figured out that a more general, open-minded approach to dark metal suited them better than the slower, rawer black metal style of the first album. However, that same open-mindedness takes this album in all possible directions. And so we immediately come to the biggest flaw of this album: the lack of coherence. While most of the songs here, individually, are good to great, when considered as a whole it’s obvious Alastis were still developing their true musical identity. Just compare the variation between all styles: ‘Through Your Torpor’ is a ‘dark-metalized take’ on thrash/groove metal, while ‘Let Me Die’ will appeal to fans of true dark & gothic metal. Track number 7, ‘March For Victory’, then again, sounds like what-if-dark-metal-had-stadium-rock-patterns.

The production is very powerful, with dominant drumwork (which would also be the case in their later releases). However, the drums sound very mechanical and electronic. If I told you this is a drumcomputer, you’d probably easily believe me. It seems, in an attempt to break away from the minimalistic style of the first album as much as possible, they have overdone the job – I would have preferred more organic sounding drums.

Alastis knew what direction they wanted to go in but allowed for too many other (sub)genres to influence the writing process for this album. Even though this makes for a musically highly varied album, it sounds more like a playlist of individual songs rather than a structured album. Songs like ‘By Thy Name’ and ‘Last Wishes’ on the other hand serve as a great example of what would later become their typical trademark style and could’ve easily fitted in on their next albums as well.

As a conclusion, I thoroughly enjoy listening to the individual tracks. A tad more coherence in the overall style of compositions would’ve definitely resulted in an 80+ score. As a ‘playlist of good-to-great songs’, I rate it at 79%.

Recommended tracks: Let Me Die, Last Wishes, The Psychopath

Three years since the debut in 92, Alastis put out a second output in the start of the mid-nineties. Where extreme metal groups were evolving and genre fusing was common place. Alastis was no different. This release fuses their previous tinted gray style of slow extreme metal. Throwing in many different change-ups throughout the album. For instance, the keyboards are used more frequently than the first, yet, they are used sparsely and not a constant feature. The vocals have evolved to a cleaner type of yell. And also the bass guitar is more prominent in the production.

What we have here compared to the debut is a better produced album. The production is more leveled and cleaner sounding, making each instrument heard evenly. Also, the music displayed is more diverse as well, giving the listener a full range of additives. The guitarist's musicianship didn't improve in the technical realm. Most of the riffs are still played simplistically. Actually, giving you a handful of rememorable, catchy riffs. He typically will use plenty of strummed chords on only a few different notes. Played in a back and forth casual motion. Mixed with chugged sections, and a method where he hits a succession of single notes, with a hint of melody, that is played in a mid-paced fashion. At points you can hear layered guitars, giving it a louder and more present sound. The bass, which is played clean, is heard quite frequently. Sometimes even in a solo fashion played along with the drums, only to build up to the guitar and vocals joining in. You'll also hear a keyboard passage about every song, mixed in at infrequent areas. They mixed it with an enhancing effect, yet balanced purpose, so the other instruments aren't drowned out, yet fitted evenly along side. The least stand out aspect of this recording is the vocals. Overall they are a cleaner type of yell. Often saying a word and extending overtop of the music rather than fitting it evenly between the brackets of notes. It gets quite annoying at points. Because the rest of the music seems like a building process. And is offset with his yells of "rahhh, ahhh, rahhh" at irritating intervals. He also uses a narrative approach, which I find more fitting with the rest of the music. It sounds like slurred spoken grunts. Then back to, "ahhhh." He should have found a different opposition of vocal changes that would have fit together better.

And Death Smiled has a fair amount of decent qualities going for it, even compared to the debut. The production was an improvement, and their song structures show more variation. Although there are some disappointing moments as well. After the intro/instrumental first track, the second track opens up with a rather unimpressive break into the songs. It has an uplifting guitar riff, accompanied with a half sung/half yelled narrative. The problem is it doesn't match the other music. Also the 7th track has an annoying drum track. It starts out with the drums playing on their own, which sounds ironically out of a song by a radio hard rock band. Then there is unnecessary keyboard drum samples mixed with the real drums. It has a constant electronic sounding cow bell that goes on throughout the majority of the song, and an equally misplaced industrial sounding pang hit every so often. The inputted sounds come off as a cheesy novelty, and are about as constant and overused as the "woo hoo" in 'Sympathy for the Devil' by the Rolling Stones.

When Alastis began, they had an uncanny resemblance to what Samael were doing at the time. However, I feel that this distanced themselves from that comparison. They adopt their own musical approach. The album has quite a bit of variation, often having each instrument get its '15 minutes of fame.' They adopt a slower, mixed genre style of playing. One person could say it has a dark metal feeling, or a black, doom, or even rock feel to it. It is hard to place all of the songs into a collective, cohesive single comparison. Probably at the time it could of also of been considered an avantgarde style of black metal. Considering it now, it might not be abstract enough. Overall, I feel that the album works some of the time and at other points falls short. It seemed like instead of just putting out a similar first album, they went for the 'gold.' As a musician it isn't a bad idea to want to out do yourself. But it isn't an easy process. Alastis went for that push, and even with all of their combined effort, I feel that overall it turned out only just above average. Also, compared to the first album, which comes off as a much darker musical concept. This shifts moods quite often and at points comes off as rockish and progressively commercial. Overall, I prefer the debut over this for its darker atmospheric side. But I can see why someone would beg to differ, because And Death Smiled is more diverse of the two and has better production.