Dimensions

Except for Stryper almost every other single practitioner from the Christian metal movement remained in the background; like God had intentionally voted to keep his soldiers in the trenches and to never shoot them into the spotlight. This is, I guess, the way of the trve warrior, which didn’t make a very big difference, if you think of it, as the genius coming from there was recognized far’n wide, winning the majority from this branch a well-deserved cult status.

Of all the outfits under God’s command Believer are by far the finest and the most gifted one. In fact, now that I’m thinking, there isn’t any other act outside the usual suspects (Metallica, Coroner, Helloween, Candlemass, Helstar, etc.) that have shot such strong first three consecutive instalments on the scene… a feat that alone certifies this team’s golden status. Although their sophomore outing “Sanity Obscure” is widely considered their magnum opus, the album reviewed here exudes greatness in spades and comes quite close to the magnanimity of its predecessor.

By 1993 the metal carnival was already pretty messed up; the groove/industrial/post-thrashy order was well established, quite peacefully at that, as most of the 80’s thrash veterans readily jumped the new wagon trying to capture some of the staggering success of the Black Album. For the majority that remained an unrealized dream, and they had to live with the shame of selling their souls cheaply to the new God of groove. Those who chose not to zig zag among new and old deities by all means won in the long run, Believer included, although the apprehension was probably quite strong in their fans’ camp before this opus’ release having in mind the few experimental deviations heard on “Sanity…”.

And yes, the road to progress and evolution receives another solid building block here, and not because of the much vaunted symphonically-executed Trilogy in the second half (which is actually a quadrilogy if we count the intro). This is a different “animal” altogether as past exploits won’t be repeated like the dry mechanical riffage at the start of “Gone” shows only too well; allusions to the aggro-rhythms of Pantera and the likes are immediately drawn, but this is a Believer recording, after all, and once Bachman’s apocalyptic shouts hit alongside the intricate razor-sharp mid-tempo guitars things nearly get back to normal, this early delivery also recalling another opus released the same year, Sacrifice’s “Apocalypse Inside”. It seems as though the modern tendencies on the field have caught up with the band, but “Future Mind” rather tells a past story by bringing back the technical thrash vigour from earlier affairs with nervy staccato leaps and bounds. Although later the focus is not exactly on fast-paced explosions, the other notable exception being the great amorphous shredder “Singularity”, one should have no problems savouring minimalistic atmospheric creepers like “Dimentia”, or superb miasmic technical steam-rollers like “What Is But Cannot Be” where surreal angular riffage tussles with bouts of linearity, this symbiosis culminating on the outstanding amorphous “No Apology”, a hectic atonal delight that would make anyone from Mekong Delta to Gorguts envious, with overlapping motifs creating a dense hallucinogenic atmosphere, one that entire albums may find hard to achieve, not to mention the first-class lead guitar work timely provided throughout.

Back to the Trilogy, it’s understandable why it has generated so much attention, for better or worse, as it’s a whole 20-min extension of “Dies Irae (Day of Wrath)” from “Sanity Obscure”, not just a momentary slip-up, but occupying a sizeable portion from the album. Symphonic thrash, anyone? Yeah, I know, sounds like a heresy even during these transformational times, but if given time this tractate will reveal itself as a truly captivating listen giving Therion and their clones a ready template to build their careers on, and even the folk metal brotherhood led by Skyclad (just hear the folk motifs on the “The Key” movement) will find something to learn. The interplay between the hard-hitting guitars and the violins and the other orchestral gimmicks has been very well achieved as the latter never stifle the riffs save for the few quiet balladic interludes. It’s debatable how convincing Bachman sounds next to the angelic diva that commands the show, but he doesn’t participate that much to be viewed a nuisance.

And that’s it, an outstanding work of metal that doesn’t suck with all the groove, and industrial, and alternative, and what have you poured into its foundations. Played back-to-back with the previous two efforts it sounds quite different, and yet it impresses almost as much, if not even more, a great example of how a veteran can adjust to the new environment without necessarily succumbing to it. This unique combination didn’t sound like anything else out there at the time as everyone else was busy grooving and aggro-ing, trying to shy away from too much musicality… well, here they were, these true Believers, who blended two different, not really contrasting, approaches into one whole that gave a wider spectre of fans something to ponder over and respectively savour. It kept the thrashers in the vicinity, it surprised and possibly pulled back the more scholastic audience, and it displayed visions and creativity that took the scene some time to get used to.

There was nowhere to go from here as thrash, regardless of the extravagant marriages the poor genre was to experience later with other styles, wasn’t the industry’s dearest, and although the not-yet shaped symphonic metal field could have been a somewhat safe bet, it didn’t seem likely that Bachmann and Co. would choose this path to explore. The Christian thrash metal movement was packing up with the majority (Sacrament, Betrayal, Tourniquet, etc.) taking a prolonged break, not willing to mess it up the way some of their brethren (Deliverance, Living Sacrifice) did by surrendering to the numetal vogues. Believer took the longest break of this lot, but their return hasn’t been the smoothest one so far, with “Gabriel” bringing some of the magic of old amongst the modern gothic, industrial, etc. meanderings, but the latter additives completely took over on “Transhuman” this album sounding like belonging to a different discography.

Yeah, it may be a bit hard to believe that in the midst of the old school resurrection campaign Believer, of all acts, have been trying to diversify the rigid palette in such a way… on the other hand, the guys have always had their eye on the offbeat and the original; let’s just wait and see what other dimensions they’re planning to take us to.

Though their first two records revealed obvious hints of experimentation, it wasn't until Dimensions that Believer would fully embrace their inner nature as progressive metal pundits with what is undoubtedly their most interesting, if not highest quality effort. Making better use of anything from samples to acoustic guitars, operatic vocals to deranged sound effects, and perhaps most centrally, a truly varied palette of thrash riffing dynamics that draws heavily upon jazz/fusion and classical sources. Like a number of other acts in the thrash and death metal fields (Pestilence, Cynic, Atheist, etc), it was evident that the Pennsylvanians were not merely content to repeat themselves, and desired a metamorphosis of their chosen medium into a vaster aural tableau. That they do this without sacrificing the thrashers within them, is to their great credit, even if Dimensions does lack some of the punch and power of its predecessor Sanity Obscure.

You wouldn't know the band had changed itself all that much judging by the first half of this disc alone, which is a natural extension of the first two, laden with thrash riffs that culminate in some scorchers like "Singularity" or the clinical "No Apology", but by that point the band have already slipped us a bunch of those random, neurotic effects that always seem to cast us back into the madhouse whenever we've settled into some pure, palm-muted, frenzied goodness. There are some uncanny sounds on this thing, like that quivering, unnerving ambient intro to "What Is But Cannot Be" or the introspective narration above the acoustics in "Dimentia". Bachman's vocals themselves are just as suffused with anxiety as they were on Sanity Obscure, with the caveat that they feel cleaner, as if recorded in a more sterile environment. The same could be said for the guitars, which is why they feel a fraction more piecemeal and far less forceful than the prior albums. Granted this is music that requires some degree of polish, professionalism and refinement, that the listener is able to pick out the nuances and the vast swaths of notation delivered through the guitars, but I admit that I've long felt this was a bit too surgically sterile in terms of its weight.

That aside, one distinct area of improvement is that the thinner guitars permit the bass to step out and slink along independently of their crushing weight, which was an issue on Extraction from Mortality and to a lesser extent Sanity Obscure. The level of variation in the writing lends itself to a more natural dichotomy in the percussion, which might share the lack of hard hitting resonance of the guitars, but grants a lot more space to mess around with fills, rides, hi-hats, etc. But probably the brightest selling point for this record, at the time, was the "Trilogy of Knowledge" suite which occupies Dimension's latter half. Collaborator Scott Baird and his sister Julianne once again contributed their classically honed talents to create an honest to God symphonic proponent that meshed quite well with Believer's thrashing matrix, and while it's not in of itself highly memorable, there was a certain novelty to the effort which had to be appreciated. Today, symphonic metal (or at least use of certain components) is quite commonplace, but the early through mid 90s was an age of brutes and the emergence of shit-tastic groove metal, so Dimensions was quite a gem in the rough, especially the contrast of Julianne and Kurt's voices.

Lyrically, the album still deals heavily with the topic of the band's faith, but also more heavily serves as a psychological profile on sanity, a discussion of man's place in the universe. It's not quite so in your face as a lot of similar minded Christian thrash acts, like the hilarious Vengeance Rising. At worst you get a bit of theistic defensiveness in "No Apology", or the "Trilogy of Knowledge" tracks which in parts feel like a sermon. As with the first two records, I've never really felt this was a major obstacle towards my enjoyment of the music as a whole (but I can say the same for most Odinist, Muslim, Satanic, Judaic, Mythos, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian metal I encounter, your own mileage may vary). Unfortunately, despite its polish and progression, Dimensions came a bit late in the Golden Age cycle of thrash to make much of a splash, and its inquisitive and experimental nature ran in direct opposition to the 'dumbing down' of the nu-metal, groove metal and metalcore onslaughts that were nearly underway. Makes sense that this would be the 'writing on the wall' for Believer, at least until their 21st century rebirth. I've never much been in love with this record, preferring the more belligerent psychosis of Sanity Obscure, but it's nonetheless interesting, and fans of records like Focus, Spheres, Deception Ignored, Elements, and 90s Mekong Delta should give it a whirl.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

If there is one thing I love about bands is progression. Just like Megadeth (of which so far I hate only 2 albums because of this extremely edged progression) that sounds completely different from one album or another. Same case with Mortification and so on and so forth. This gives the opportunity to pick up some album if you want to listen to more hard rock-ished tunes, more metal, more speed metal, even thrash or even, for further purposes, experimental metal. I do believe that Dimensions is the perfect progression the band was known for, being the difference from the debut ‘Extraction from Mortality’ with the Tom Araya-esque vocals to the sheer brutality and technical approach on ‘Sanity Obscure’ to their final chapter (back then) of experimentation with opera, acoustic passages, spoken interludes, quintessential tempo changes and inclusion of many elements that make this album special in many instances.

‘Dimensions’ lacks some things despite its genius. For instance I still hate the vocals, even softer and more experimental than Sanity Obscure so these screechy screams, I can’t really dig them. On the other hand it lacks punch. There is, pretty much only one fast song here, so this is hardly a thrash album. When you listen to the first chords on the first song you can think: ‘wow, this sounds Sepultura’s heavy thrash’, but once the riff comes forth, that idea fades away. There are indeed double bass fast tempos but they don’t even fill one song. The majority of the albums run on middle tempo with the driving changes throughout the songs but even those flaws don’t take away the magic of this album which I still consider to be their best, and the pinnacle of creativity on a thrash album.

There is not much to say about the songs except maybe that there are fast songs (a few but fast anyway), ballad-esque songs, opera/metal songs, progressive-esque songs, mid tempo songs and all of these elements almost on every song as well. Intricate riffing and melodic solos are present throughout. The level of technical elements on all of the songs is remarkable. The main riff on ‘Gone’ is delicious, malicious and cool. What brings down the song, to me, is the excess of spoken (recorded) parts. But there are many interesting rhythm parts. ’Singularity’ is another fast track double tempo that works fine but it lacks, again like the rest of songs here, the punch of Extraction from Mortality and certainly the brutality of Sanity Obscure. ‘Dimentia’ is basically an acoustic song and it deals with the theory of evolution against God’s creation. It is all spoken and only the chorus has this trashy screechy voice. The solo is almost not melodic but rhythmic. The climax is very calm to though-provoke you and even a violin solo ends the song. Despite its flaws, it is a great song and I’d say my favorite here. ‘What is but cannot be’ is a darker track where the guitars sound evil. There is a buzz created to make you feel indeed that the track is darker and the progressive elements in the riffs are killer. The voice is distorted, again, to provoke this darkened feeling on you.

I would dare to say that the drumming is very effective and viciously far superior on a technical level. Think Mike Portnoy’s approach and you get the idea where you get lots of textures, tons of tempo changes and dramatic change signatures. The guy takes advantage of the drum kit as much as he can. The ‘Trilogy of knowledge’ is one of the best metal/opera speed metal tracks ever written. It is so sad it didn’t get any recognition back then, but it was until the 90s when the euro power metal bands got recognition for performing something that it was long ago done. This superb track (s) has it all: soprano vocals, masterly performed tempo changes, fast parts, thrash metal vocals, intricate riffing, all! It is almost 18min. of pure experimental thrash performed on a superior skill level.

The vocals are now multilayered so the effect can provoke a certain dark atmosphere on the songs. The bass is now audible and I must say it goes along with the guitars perfectly, making the album solid (not yet heavy per se or brutal) but think of the bass lines thickness as on The Gathering by Testament. Production-wise since all the instruments now sound compact, as a whole and no instrument (even the voice) overpowers the rest as in past albums.

Believer did what they do the best: put together a lot of influences and styles on this absolute killer album which is the epitome of thrash experimentation with really cool elements and if you are into different thrash bands this is it. This is the album that marked a high level of skills which, as of today, cannot be compared to anything that I have heard before. They were, back in 1993, the quartet of knowledge.

Believer released their first debut in 1989 called Extraction From Mortality, which was a thrash metal classic. In 1990, they released another album, which was even better entitled Sanity Obscure, which was a bit more technical than their original debut. Now comes their third and last offering; Dimensions. A very symphonic/melodic/operatic thrash metal album, and is also very different from their others for the fact that Kurt's vocals have changed, and is even MORE progressive than their other albums.

This album has a lot of soundbyte introductions, which include bits from Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and The Exorcist III. Dimensions starts out with the track entitled "Gone." That song goes back to their days of Extraction From Mortality because it is very thrashy, and plays some-what similar riffs as was played in their first album. 7/10

"Future Mind" is an alright song and has a soundbyte from the movie Hellraiser II "The mind is a labyrinth, a puzzle..." then it gets heavy. Not a bad song. 7/10

"Dimentia" is one of the better tracks on the album, and starts out with a very beautiful accoustic guitar introduction. 'the voice' goes into a voice-over describing how science has taken over the world. Then it gets HEAVY. 8/10

"What is but cannot be" is a pretty damn good track too. Very heavy. 8/10

"Singularity" is an awesome track, one of the best. Unfortunetly, Kurt's vocals get a little annoying. 8/10

"No apology" is another awesome track. A real thrasher for the album. 8/10

"Trilogy Of Knowledge" is definetly the best track(s) on here, and the reason why I say track(s) because it's an epic split into four parts. Has A LOT of symphonic thrash elements to it, and it's definetly AMAZING. The whole epic symbolizes the story of Christ. 10/10.


Overall, the negatives of this album is it's sort of "avant-guardish" as well, Kurt Bachman's vocals need improvement, because they were REALLY annoying. Over all. 88%