Crimson

I remember that when I first discovered this album, I was impressed by the enormous devotion shown by listeners who knew this style. Crimson was for me an incomparable work of art when I heard it for the first time, even with the second, third, fourteenth time. Well, if in the past I came to regard Dan Swano as a god, just imagine my reaction when I discovered Crimson.

The brutal introduction with that ultra-heavy riff along with Swano's furious gutturals encourage anyone and then you find a mysterious prelude that gives rise to epic riffs, where Swano through his roars tells the story that is told in this album. In his time he also praised the ability of the musicians to write the concept of the album that really goes like a glove regarding the music. A story that mixes uncertainty, tragedy and betrayal is ideal for the coupling of riffs and solos that this album has.

The first time I heard Crimson I was hooked in particular by the solos, where Åkerfeldt from Opeth also collaborates, to give that appropriate melancholy and epic touch to the music. What even today doesn't convince me too much is Swano's clean voice, it doesn't sound bad but it falls short, it doesn't convey much to me but I admit that clean vocalizations are at the right times. It is as if the album was not only well composed musically, but also well directed, since they are narrating a story, the best they can do is give coherence to the script, as if it were a movie. And in the middle of the 40 minutes, the breaking point is presented with some strange delay effects following one of the most characteristic solos of the album plus the growling voice of Swano continuing the story. At this point the album takes a turn to become less melancholic, but rather unpredictable.

The repetition and "recycling" of some riffs and solos does point to something monotonous, although I'm not against that aspect either, in the end the band knew exactly where to use these musical arrangements. I'm sure Akerfeldt learned a lot from this album, since in the next Opeth albums this style of "circular and elaborate riffs" is noticeable, although he also probably learned it from Blakkheim, who curiously also rubbed shoulders with Dan Swano in Diabolical Masquerade.

As of minute 32 is when the disc takes the final turn, preparing the end of this story. The band begins to use more of the characteristic riffs of the first section. What started is about to end and in the same way. And again Swano's soft singing comes along with slow riffs and a rather melodic solo, but that's not the end. As I said before, this album ends the same as it began, the brutal riffs reappear along with the most violent roars, to give the most abrupt ending possible to this story.

Despite all the laurels and not-so-favorable points on the album, Crimson is still a great job. I admit that if I am a little surprised that it has gained some detractors, in the end it cannot be liked by anyone who is involved in this. Or it seems "too progressive" or "progressive" in a bad way. The repetition of riffs and arrangements throughout the song is something contradictory to point out as negative, since it is a single song and does not depend exclusively on the repetition of musical arrangements that are at the beginning, middle and end of the song, but also of the ability of the musicians to give them a coherence with the lyrics and a good melodic continuity.

All the moments of Crimson are not randomly placed, they are well connected with a fixed meaning, without sounding too repetitive, but quite familiar. I get the impression that some were expecting something even more ambitious than this, but I could be wrong. Crimson is already one of the most ambitious death metal albums ever made.

In current and not so current times, Edge of Sanity is still a fundamental part of my spiritual taste for music and in my life story, they have influenced me a lot as a musician and composer and Crimson actually hit me pretty hard. However, with the passing of time, my point of view has changed a bit regarding this work, but that doesn't mean that I have considered that the album is aging badly or that it doesn't surprise me as much as before. In fact, it still seems like an excellent piece of work, but as I said before in my review of the Cryptic album, this is not my favorite work of Edge of Sanity and I will continue without telling you what it is. They'll find out.

To be dismissive and critical with one's commentary on 'Crimson' about its failure to be progressive seems besides the point. Why would there be any pressure for this album to follow the standard code established by some, in order to get some sort of stamp of approval ? Says who ? Simply pointing out that the parts work well as a giant pearl necklace and are animated by their own fluency, puts any major criticism about structure away. The parts aren't actually randomly slotted together. There's transition work throughout and when there isn't, Dan Swano and gang rather opt for managing tension; building and releasing it; moving from melodies and themes that seem to connect naturally. A part will end with a big power chord, serving as the cue for a softer sequence with fewer instruments, and then a buildup with melodic complexity creeps in, and so on. Besides, the unorthodox format of the record is exactly the sort of sine qua non condition that gives it the singularity and otherness that enthusiasts would find most characterizes its strength.

Needless to say the album is an adventure in rediscovering the various moods of metal music (but I still said it). Come to think of it, this is a pretty good pedagogical tool for any exuberant novice. Evil black metal melodies with the blasts and screams, doomy dirges, classic Swedish melodic death metal from the gut, memorable musical themes you're likely to never forget (and that'll pop back up into your mind years later), a prog element particularly noticeable with the heavy down-tuned guitar rhythms... and Swano's voice following each mood and each sub-genre dynamic more than adequately. The man has a deep, powerful voice and he knows how to modulate it and fit it into the various modes on this record. Not just any vocalist could do the job.

As much as this is an assortment of goods; and goods of fine quality; there's still hardly anything that comes across as surprising in the choice of composition, bar a couple of notably colorful melodies perhaps. The individual parts themselves aren't particularly experimental. There is at least one such surprise though, right before minute 33, the record blesses the listener with a judiciously (although unprompted) fully a cappella section that's utterly immersive. All of a sudden, after dozens of minutes of metal blasting at us, we're in the middle of Gregorian chants, in a vast room permeated with a solemn plainness... and then of course it's right back to a furious Lombardo beat and tremolo picking with growls, but anyways.

Besides the fact there's obviously a personal bond between the fans and the album, there's also a genuine feeling of nostalgia there, as a quality intrinsic to the music itself. The melodies, the darker ones or the more melodic kind alike, have that dramatic spur to them, that romantic longing. The music mostly feels like it's addressing the individual, and less so the crowd. The tainted production promotes this. It feels and sounds cavernous, and eminently intimate. Some parts drone on, in a way that puts the listener into a comfortable groove, as they'll immediately recognize a part that just feels so right, almost like the artists are communicating to the person directly and sharing the music for that moment. Other metal albums from the Scandinavian scene (think melo-death bands) can have that extroverted momentum, like it's looking for that feeling of a wider crowd, with brighter elements, more dynamism, or presence on the drums, and those may have their own assets but will likely not communicate the personal proximity found on this.

This here is an old friend you meet with again, one on one, pour yourself some red (or spark up a spliff for some), and enjoy its smooth experience, and the distinction and immortal character of so many of its moments.
Now, could this have been better in all sorts of ways ? Could they have for example orchestrated a better ending to such an epic 40min endeavor ? Sure. But it's one of a kind. In many ways, it embodies that mid-90's period fans look back at with tremendous fondness. A golden age of sorts for Swedish melodic bands (Dissection's "Storm of the light's bane" 1995, "The Jester race" by In flames 1996...) that still had a lot of backbone and spunk to it, and that could produce a daring record like this one.

A casual glance at the back of the CD...disbelief...a quick look at the booklet...no way there is only one song! It’s gotta be divided into parts...(40 minutes later) Whoa, it IS one song!

In fact, I was waiting for the release of this album with anticipation and was obviously aware of its uniqueness long before it was actually released. Expectations among metalheads were high, because 1994’s Purgatory Afterglow, EOS’s 4th longplay, attained a cult status, introduced the band to a wider public while keeping most of those who had stood by them so far. The band’s decision to make a one song album only heated up the atmosphere.

With the state of things as it was this album was expected to either enchant or to disappoint heavily. But few had dreamed it would both enchant and KILL (with power)! From the first song on...oh wait, let’s start over: from the first minute of the Crimson opus till its dying seconds there is little (if any) time wasted on the usual bullshit that most concept albums (at least those telling one story in multiple chapters) are full of: keyboard interludes, spoken parts, long instrumentals, means of musical expression shifting from soft (acoustic guitar/piano + whispered words) to heavy (when all instruments FINALLY join in as well as do growls). It’s heavy almost all the time. This is a death metal album first of all!

Vocally it is one of the most interesting (and varied) performances in the band’s history: Dan Swano boasts a deep, majestic growl (with easily discernible lyrics), beautifully contrasted with his clear singing (just as awesome as the harsh vocals). The parts where singing ends and growling starts (which usually corresponds to the shift in music) are absolute madness, cherry on the pie. Add to that a hysterical vocal performance from Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth and you have a top-notch vocal performance. And I value that highly, even on a death metal album...

OK, but we all know that it’s the guitars – their sound and performance – that make a death metal album, Swedish style. This case is no different, the axes are chunky, heavy, very warm-sounding, just as the recipe says. They burst into solos a few times, thus dividing the story into ‘chapters’ without unnecessary intermissions. The music keeps flowing, the awesome riffs keep rolling on and coming back (after all, this is one song, we are reminded of that in the final minutes of the record when the opening riff returns to announce the album’s closure) and the music overwhelms with its integrity. That’s right, the band sounds so much dense, they’re tight as Sebastian Bach’s leather pants.

Few words concerning the production: it is meaty, full, with heavy guitars (I know I mentioned that already), but also the drums sound very powerful – note that the latter wasn’t always the case even on Edge Of Sanity’s carefully produced albums (for those unenlightened: Dan Swano is also a renowned producer and all of EOS albums – save for 1997’s Infernal and Cryptic – were produced in his own Unisound Studio). On Crimson, the drums are heavy and the bass drum sounds...lovely, simply lovely. Not like a plastic bucket, not like a wooden box, but like beaten up animal skin filled with guts, which is proper for a metal album. In terms of album sound, Edge Of Sanity is a stellar band. But of course, if the music sucked donkey dick, nobody would remember its sound (the sound of music, not the sound of sucking).

So what have we got here? In brief, Crimson boasts lots of melodic passages mixed with some brutality and few slowdowns. All of it is perfectly played and produced. What else might one want? This is one of metal albums that will leave you mouth open, jaw dripping and drooling in want of more. Just press play...

P.S. I almost forgot that this is a concept album and it has a story or something. Okay, for those interested, it is a sci-fi tale of future when the human race becomes infertile and the last remaining people gather around the King & Queen of the Earth who finally succeed at giving birth to a daughter. The child soon becomes orphaned and turns to evil in order to fight a usurper king. She succeeds in the battle, but soon people realize she is leading them to downfall. A group of rebels dares to overthrow her brutal rule...

The story was continued on Crimson II, a goodbye album of Edge Of Sanity, recorded after series of unfortunate events, which led first to an artistic dispute between Swano and Andreas Axelsson, Swano’s departure, the band hiring new singer and splitting up after recording one album (Cryptic). Swano reformed EOS only to finish the story of the Crimson Queen and recorded all instruments and vocals himself and announced the ultimate dissolution of the band as soon as the album was released.

The greatness of the bands is revealed by the fact that they achieve something new, while maintaining the previous, very high level. The case of Edge Of Sanity looked even more interesting, because Swanö and the rest of the band on their famous "Crimson" really outdid themselves here! One could speculate that the previous "Purgatory Afterglow" and "The Spectral Sorrows" definitely led the band to the wall and that nothing more than the known format on their part will not be created. Well, not with EoS! The phenomenon of "Crimson" is precisely in the fact that it stands out well above anything in the progressive melo-death genre and is a release that only a few came close to this genius (even the second part did not quite achieve it).

The Swedes simply flew away to regions in which hardly anyone tried to delve before them in this style (the earlier Pan.Thy.Monium was aiming at something completely different). "Crimson" is only one track, but...closed in 40 minutes! So, it's 40 minutes of melo-death based on patents from the period of "Unorthodox" - "Purgatory Afterglow", and at the same time beating over those albums. Well, it's overwhelming for the simple reason that this lp is much better at using contrasts, smuggles more interestingly prog rock patents and takes gothic influences more seriously (completely different than it was in "Sacrificed", for example - vide: Dan's clean singing). Another thing that captivates in "Crimson" is the ease of using these themes. The whole momentum is quite large and full of various flavors, and at the same time it's difficult to get lost on this album and lose its meaning. The credit for this is, of course, considerable melodiousness, but also immediately memorable motifs and their quite frequent repetition. The amount of climate change (although considerable) does not therefore overwhelm, and on the other side, it shows the enormous potential of these musicians. It delights absolutely everything on "Crimson": riffs, brutality, progression, slowdowns, Dan's various singing (in a few places supported by Mikael Åkerfeldt's growling from Opeth), rock melodies. Virtually everything that is characteristic of Edge Of Sanity!

Time has clearly shown that "Crimson" is the peak of this Swedish band's capabilities. On the one hand, this longplay perfectly sums up the EoS cds from earlier years, on the other hand, it offers it in a form that is not, however obvious. Besides, it's simply more consistent and - due to the very unusual format - more exciting than the previous two.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2019/07/edge-of-sanity-crimson-1996.html

Edge Of Sanity is a band that not many know about, yet they are actually quite influential in the field of prog metal. I suspect Opeth took most of their cues from this band and, more specifically, this album. It's not surprising, as the two bands are already connected in other ways: EoS frontman Dan Swano produced the first two Opeth albums, while Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt also makes a guest appearance on the album being reviewed. It's a shame that this album, hailed by many fans as Edge Of Sanity's crowning achievement, is really just a horribly disjointed mess. I respect the band for trying something new and making one of the first attempts at a concept album in extreme metal, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

The actual music here is... decent, I suppose. The primary genre seems to be melodic death metal, but with parts of other genres thrown in. There's also some straight death metal, some black metal, some groove metal, and some melodic riffs that are somewhat similar to power metal. Most of the different sections sound quite pleasant when isolated from the rest of the album, though I can't recall anything exceptional. There's also a lot of acoustic breaks not unlike Opeth (my apologies for making yet another contrived comparison) that provide a good source of variation and balance between the soft and heavy sections. It should be mentioned that there also aren't any standout technical displays here - the "progressive" tag is mostly attributed to the songwriting (or rather, lack thereof - more on this later).

Another aspect of Crimson that I quite like is the concept itself. The story is quite interesting, depicting a bleak future where humans are unable to reproduce, then gradually expanding on that with a series of rather captivating plot twists. I won't spoil anything else, but the lyrics do make for a rather enjoyable read on their own.

Unfortunately, Edge Of Sanity completely butchered arguably the most important aspect of such an ambitious endeavor: the songwriting. The way this thing is paced and structured is a complete trainwreck. Mood changes happen on the fly with no warning or cohesion; a furious death metal section can haphazardly turn into a clean break at the drop of a hat (yet another Opeth analogy - this is something that band is also fond of doing). Different ideas come and go one after another, never having enough time to develop. A few of them recur quite a few times, but this seems quite pointless, as the good stuff will stick in your head the first time without ever developing, and the terrible stuff will simply give you an unpleasant reminder of just how terrible it is. Special mention must be made of one of the suckiest riffs on the album - the opening riff. It's a boring, droning groove riff comprised of about 4 chords, there's no real depth to it, and yet it is repeated more times than any other riff here - it appears about 7-8 times over the course of the album's runtime. But it's not like hearing it more will make you like it more, right?

And then comes the most idiotic structural quirk here: the entire second half of the album is literally a reprise of the first half. That's right. At about the 17 minute mark, you are treated to yet another instance of that insipid opening riff, which gradually goes into a repeat of THE ENTIRE SONG up to that point, just with a few of the riffs swapped out for new ones. Admittedly, they still manage to fit the story to some extent, but that just leads me to believe that it's actually the other way around; that the lyrics were written for the music to somehow justify this incredibly lazy excuse for songwriting. I get it, coming up with 40 minutes worth of good ideas is very difficult. That doesn't justify padding the damn thing by putting all of the ideas you already have on repeat and basically turning the album into an overlong Death song (that band is also known for milking a similar arrangement to hell and back for most of their career).

If your jaw dropped from the sheer stupidity of that decision, then don't bother picking it up, because what comes after is arguably even more ridiculous. The climax (beginning at around 32:30) is one of the weakest, most limp-wristed endings to any album that I've heard. After a somewhat good section with layered vocals, it proceeds to recycle a few of the exact same riffs in a haphazard order with no cohesion whatsoever. This continues for a few minutes until the album finally closes with... that's right, ANOTHER use of the goddamned opening riff. Only this time, it is abruptly brought to a halt without any sense of finality, release of tension, or anything that a good ending should have. What the hell? Why does such an ambitious work have such a clearly tacked on ending? Were the band contractually obligated to release this on a deadline of some kind?

To be honest, no answer to these questions will make the actual music any better or worse. All that matters is that this is a sorry excuse for a concept album created by a group of musicians who thought that smashing together a bunch of disjointed ideas is a good way to write a song. Avoid this, and if you want to hear anything good out of these guys, I'd say The Spectral Sorrows is your best bet. At least that album has actual songs that develop like they should, and at least it doesn't break the flow with a mallcore riff or acoustic section every two minutes. Also, don't bother with the sequel - it's basically the same thing, but 3 minutes longer and with some added orchestrations and clean sections. Not worth your time or money. Now where's Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" when I need it?

One of the most important things in life is to know who you are and what you are capable of. I know that I ain't J. K. Rowling, so I'll never attempt to write a 700 pages long book, simply because I don't have much to say. The problem with Señor Swanö is that...holy fuck man, you can't even write a decent 4 minutes song, so why attempt a 40?! Seriously, you gotta be a retard to even think that this album is somewhere near the progressive genre. Listening to this miserable album is like watching a 16 years old maiden's failed attempt at parallel parking: moving in and out for 40 minutes with no success and eventually leaving the scene with nothing but a great sense of undeniable, gigantic failure.

Crimson suffers badly from what I would classify as a severe case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Once I saw a dog chasing cars so enthusiastically that as soon as he almost got one, he immediately left it and started chasing another one. Just for fun. And that's exactly what this album is like: it presents an idea, develop it a little and then abandon it completely in favor of another unrelated idea. What a great way to waste our time!

The guitar work on this album is at best unimaginative and bland, and at worst dumb and insulting. You can't just stretch one song for 40 minutes with that amount of incompetent ideas and hope that people will actually pay you money for this. The opening riff is basically the same 4 chords repeated, which is quite common and usual, but then it just stop and make a way for a new clean guitar riff that repeat itself several times before we are presented with another riff. So far 3 riffs that none of them sound connected in any way to the other, and in addition none of them has a tiny grain of character. Just utterly generic uninspired riffs that fill the necessary blank spaces required in order to fill 40 minutes of your day. After that, we go back to riff number one, as if it was possible to miss something from its incredibly complex theme of 4 droning chords that we need a reminder. Then, the tempo slows down, the piano comes in with acoustic guitar and clean vocals and we are sent towards a completely different song than what we've heard so far. Of course, this section is dull as the previous one and there is nothing to save us from the ongoing randomness that surrounds us in this weird trip between unrelated, unsolved, fragmented semi-musical sections that doesn't reach any point, as we head towards a new section of distorted guitars and clumsy riffs. We weren't born to suffer that much.

There are lyrics in this album, of course, and they tell some sort of story about a world of infertile humanity, war for the throne and some more clichés that I simply don't care enough about. The vocals are delivered either in a form of monotonous cookie monster growling, or monotonous soft clean vocals. All the clean vocal melodies are simply drifting in the air without a single good melodic idea, and the growls are just boring and lifeless. No surprises.

I think it's kinda funny that people think that if a song has a lot of changes between loud and soft moods, and it has more than 20 minutes of length, then that must mean this song is progressive and a masterpiece! Guess what? You are wrong! Crimson is just a lousy collection of fragmented ideas with no direction that drag for too much time and reach no climax. It's like watching a 40 minutes movie of unrelated scenes with unrelated characters, no storyline and not even a single memorable scene. Listening to this album is a very frustrating experience that you should avoid.

Crimson is considered Edge of Sanity’s crowning achievement, masterpiece, finest work, etc. And even if you don’t think that it’s amazing, you have to admit that it’s an ambitious move: one forty-minute conceptual song, with a push towards a more progressive style. While it’s a good song and it’s always at least interesting to see a band move outside of their comfort zone, Crimson doesn’t quite reach the heights that have been ascribed to it.

There is not enough variety to sustain Crimson – this is the main flaw, and it seems like Swano & Co pieced together about ten or so separate but similar songs in order to achieve the length that they did. Unfortunately the detriments of having full-blast death metal for one continuous forty minute song is that it can become a bit stagnant after a while, not really exploring much new territory even in the depths of the song. They do change it up, throwing in some upbeat and doomy riffs, as well as the occasional soft part, but for most of the track they stick to their principal sound, and in this regard, take no risks. There is nothing wrong with the actual music and the death metal is some of the band’s strongest, with riffs-aplenty and quite a few energetically aggressive moments, while still showing off that melodic side. I’ve never been a huge fan of Swano’s vocals but Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth has a guest spot and does a fantastic job, his growls furious and his clean singing pleasant.

The other issue with Crimson is that there isn’t really any payoff. The song stops just as Edge of Sanity begins to build up to a big finish, and the "grand finale" that we do get seems very hastily thrown together after a disjointed previous few minutes. And the very end – the last few seconds – are painfully anticlimactic as it just screeches to a halt all of the sudden. I had to listen to this from multiple sources just to make sure the song wasn’t getting cut off and I was missing something, but it seems as if they couldn’t think of a real ending.

The concept of this album isn’t very important in comparison to the music although I’d like to address it, and I applaud EoS for this extra effort on top of the fact that they managed to write an album-length song. The storyline combines science fiction and mysticism, but the details are unknown to me because Edge of Sanity doesn’t make their lyrics particularly clear and unambiguous, and I don’t care enough to look it up. The nature of the growled vocals that are used a majority of the time makes the plot harder yet to follow and I’d like to petition a ban on primarily using harsh vocals for concept albums.

Crimson doesn’t work as a forty minute song, despite having very little problem with flow. There are few drastic changes and even fewer distinct movements – it is based more upon random meandering than musical evolution and real progress. The music behind this is some quality melodeath, and if you don’t think of Crimson as one cohesive song, then it’s a solid piece of work.

Crimson definitely gives the most enthralling experience one could wish to obtain from a death metal album. This album evokes different kinds of beauty and feelings whether it be melancholy, sorrow, hope, joy or despair. There are many different passages to Crimson that give the entire album a distinct feel to it, from the heavy acoustic passages to the thick, crushing guitar riffs that give the impression of running through a dark forest surrounded by the obscurity that lies ahead. A truly interesting part of the context and background of Crimson is where the whole set of lyrics tell a tale about a Utopian future in Sweden though it seems. The fact that the music captures the theme of the story so incredibly well makes this song that much more impressive.

Another distinct and positive aspect that makes this album stand out in my opinion is how the mastermind and brainchild of Edge of Sanity, Dan Swano is able to blend progressive elements into classic Scandinavian death metal that gives Crimson it's unique approach and taste. Despite being an innovative, overlooked and rarity among the many cookie cutter death metal albums being released at time, with a handful of bands being as daring, experimental and adventurous as Edge of Sanity on Crimson. Other bands include Atheist, Cynic, Opeth, Psychotic Waltz, Pestilence, Death and Gorguts to name a few and therefore makes Crimson one of the landmarks of the progressive death metal realm. Finally another positive aspect about Crimson is how the album is one entire song, with all of the ideas and concept of the album fitting into one.

To wrap up this masterpiece as a whole is that it is by far one of the most profound, thematic and diverse death metal albums out there and has become a classic among the progressive metal genre over time. Also due to the fact that this is Edge of Sanity's finest hour, no other album in their discography comes close to being as an all-rounded and near perfect as Crimson. The only drawback that I have which is on a sidenote is the fact that Dan put a stop to Edge of Sanity awhile back, therefore adding to the list of legendary bands that have split-up. Crimson is among the handful of perfect metal albums in my opinion and it's sheer brilliance will be quite difficult to match.

When you put this CD in and the single 40-minute song - that is this album - plays, you're already impressed. The bestial growls backed by astonishing riffs and melodic overtone all within the first minute blow you away. You're already satisfied with one minute of this album before you even notice that you still have 39 more to go before it's over.

Now, I wasn't too familiar with Edge of Sanity putting this album on. I found this album at a record store for a cheap price in their previously owned section. Being an Opeth fan for years now, I of course recognized their name and recognized that this was indeed the album that constitutes just only one very long song. Curiosity got the best of me and suffice to say; I'm not disappointed.

Death metal has been stretched by Swedish unadulterated bands Opeth and Edgy of Sanity now into this concept of progressive magnitude and I can easily say, this song alone sums up how good you can get out of the Swedish death and prog scene. Even the Opeth frontman himself features a guest vocal part in an area of this song. Åkerfeldt's scream on this album is probably one of the most violent vocals he's ever executed. It may be a little difficult for the casual listener to disambiguate between Swanö and Åkerfeld's voices, but when you have listened to Opeth as long as I have, it comes in crystal-clear on who is who. Only Åkerfeld could summon such insane monstrous sounds and he absolutely kills it on this track.

Now the riffs definitely need to spoken for. The performance is insane. From melody to brutality, it's hard sometimes to actually believe everything here is all in one song. Everything Dan Swanö does here is completely mindblowing. There are at least 100 riffs here and almost every single one of them has a lead over it, his creativity has no limits. Even the bass guitar has its own pattern, nothing ever seems to follow its own peer instrument. Everything on this album (besides the rhythm guitar parts) plays lead and doesn't disappoint.

Crimson is a very spectacular release, anyone that is into music to the magnitude of what can be considered nothing short of amazing should really check this out. It's worth adding to your collection.

You know this "one 40 minute death metal song" is going to be bad just from the very beginning. Immediately, you are slammed with a down tuned Korn riff reminiscent of later day Roadrunner Records angst rock, followed by a clean break that is made "heavy" by turning the distortion pedal on again in a manner eerily reminiscent of 2000s angst-y soft-heavy whine rock. It then goes back to that one Korn riff. This is not going to be a good album, but you throw in the Dan Swanö namesake and "progressive/forward thinking" marketing banter and you could fool the masses into believing this is the best thing since sliced bread.

As with most concept albums, the concept to this album is pretty stupid. It feels like what would happen if Children of Men were turned into a Marvel comic: some dystopian future that seems almost entirely ripped off from the novel. Same themes, same story, except with what I assume are "religious" allusions with the child at the center of this story being a Jesus equivalent. Of course, none of this matters since the music relays none of this imagery and comes off like a 40 minute medley that acts as a garbage plate of ideas that were too terrible to even be featured on an album as bad as the Purgatory Afterglow LP than an actual "song".

For starters, none of the music here is organized or structured in any meaningful way, and it's through sheer randomness that this album has falsely attained the "progressive" tag. From the already mentioned Korn-y beginning, we go to "part 2" of this 10 part song, with no real discernible differences between any of the parts. Dan Swanö belts out his clumsily pieced together tale with the faux-growls that would later influence metalcore, whiny clean vocals, and off putting Sisters of Mercy parodying goth crooning (made worse than it already was on previous goth crowd pandering tune Sacrificed). The music is nothing more than a melange of groove metal crap, cheerful mellow-deaf like the "heavy" parts from Amorphis' Elegy, clean whiny indie rock, and worst of all - the "pretending to be extreme" parts. During these parts fast drums play over what sounds like The Somberlain era Dissection playing their favorite parts from old Capcom video games. The music is stylistically fragmented as already mentioned, but it's also emotionally schizophrenic, randomly going from cheerful and cute little pleasant sounds to a roaring ruckus of faux-aggression going into a Rush derivative section and everything in between. That's not progressive, it's random and nonsensical. This album fails on every level, not really knowing what it wants to accomplish and jumping between parts at random that suggests a group of guys sat in a room and pasted together random parts with no rhyme or reason. If you want progressive music that actually has lasting value, conviction, and doesn't pretend by hiding uneventful crap in a 40 minute display of randomness, pick up the second Atheist album. If you were looking for good Swedish death metal instead, skip Edge of Sanity (and pretty much anything on Black Mark that's not Bathory) altogether and pick up the first Dismember and Entombed albums. This is just an over glorified drink coaster that's more focus group "how will we make people think Edge of Sanity is forward thinking, etc." derived product than the byproduct of artistic intent. Avoid.

This band and album came to my attention through my once-fervent appreciation of the fellow Swedish progressive death metal group Opeth. Although my love of Opeth has since dwindled a fair bit, I am left now with the music of Edge Of Sanity, led by none other than Dan Swano, who seems to have taught Opeth frontman quite a bit when it comes to metal. With the prospect of a forty minute epic riding my expectations high, I was nearly expecting to be let down, but quite clearly; that was not the case. Rivaled by only a handful of other albums in death metal, 'Crimson' is a powerfully crafted opus that takes beauty and heaviness in equal measure and combines them in a narrative style to create what is one of the best put-together concept albums I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.

Telling a fairly dark story that blends elements of science-fiction and the supernatural, 'Crimson' revolves around a dismal vision of the future in which mankind can breed no longer, and depends on a mythic princess to lead them to salvation. Unfortunately, she makes a deal with an 'unholy entity' of sorts to save her people, and from there on, things start to fall apart. Even as a story of its own, 'Crimson' is a convincing piece of fantasy fiction, and while some parts of the plot are left a bit obscure, it feels like a perfect milieu for the music to score. Although some listeners may find it difficult to follow the story on first listen due to the rather garbled nature of death metal growls (of which there are plenty here), the music gets the intended feeling and imagery across just right. 'Crimson' also makes use of some incredibly memorable leitmotifs that also seem to coincide with recurring narrative elements, such as death. Speaking musically, Edge Of Sanity is very clever in the way they re-use ideas from earlier in the forty minute epic; things never feel too familiar, and there is always a tinge of development to make the ideas feel even more dramatic than earlier on.

For death metal, the guitar work here is surprisingly melodic and often alternates between heavier and darker moments, much in the same way Opeth would. There are also some guest appearances from Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, doing a vocal section and some guitar soloing. What might come as a surprise to some that find themselves particularly endeared to the band is that Akerfeldt's performance here pales in comparison to Dan Swano. Especially in Swano's emotive growling, there is always great power involved, and the lyrics are much more coherent than some other vocalists in death metal. Swano's clean approach isn't quite as sharp as his growling, but his deep tenor holds a nice resonance, particularly in a part later on where he harmonizes with himself beautifully.

The lead guitar licks are always top notch and melodic; never particularly technical, but always powerful. The rhythm guitar is not quite as organic, instead sometimes feeling like it is simply there to get the heaviness and chords across without putting its own mark of feeling into the music. That being said, there is little to distract from the enjoyment of this work. Although the word 'epic' is unfortunately tossed around far too often when describing music, Edge Of Sanity's 'Crimson' writes the book on it. One of the most powerful albums out there in the world of metal, progressive or otherwise.

Edge of Sanity may be the only band who can write a 1 song album lasting 40 minutes that I can listen all the way through and want to listen again. Yes this album is that good. I think it's safe to say that Dan Swano had the biggest hand in creating this album and you can tell by how progressive it is.

Ok so first off the lyrics of Crimson are excellent. Swano's vocals are deep and guttural but like Karl Willets from Bolt Thrower, you can still understand what he is saying. So the vocal performance is very fitting to the story. And its a great story at that! A king and queen rule over a population who are unable to reproduce thus bringing the extinction of humans in the near future. The rest of the song recount's the king and queen's child being born, their daughter becoming evil by an unholy god and her rule over what is left of humanity. No worries though, eventually a group of people take her prisoner and humanity is given the gift of life once more.

I have never heard a song that mirrors the emotion of the story being told so well. It is expertly done on Crimson. When the Queen dies (during child birth) and later the King as well, the music echoes this becoming sorrowful and sad. When the populace finds out they have been deceived into sacrificing themselves for the queen it becomes furious and chaotic. The music matches the actions of the story in a truly impressive way.

Swano gives a terrific performance as well. His death growls are as evil sounding as ever but his cleans happen to shine just as bright. Mike Akerfeldt from Opeth contributes both clean and harsh vocals as well. In fact he let's a absolutely morbid scream and holds it for quite a while and it sounds pretty badass.

There are some very memorable riffs in Crimson. We have some really nice acoustic interludes which usually are a sign of one movement making a transition to another. Now there are a few riffs that are repeating. One is a doom riff that is kind of down trod and dark sounding setting the mood. Another is a harmonized twin lead that is just epic! It repeats 2 or 3 times throughout the song and sounds kind of upbeat. Every time I hear this part I bang my head it's just addictive.

But the guitar riffs as a whole are quite catchy. It doesn't matter if they are more in the death metal vein or not, they are all quite memorable. The drumming is pretty straight forward and I enjoy the blast beats here and there. The bass is for the most part buried behind everything else and doesn't exactly play a very prominent role which is unfortunate.

Crimson is a great album that is both progressive and melodic. EoS have created a must have album that could even be appreciated by those who don't listen to extreme music for its depth and the creativity. Do yourself a favor and find this album.

Originally reviewed at http://abaddonsmetalshop.blogspot.com/

It was neither the first or last time a metal band had created the long-playing, single track epic. Considering Dan Swanö's deep roots in the progressive rock field, it was inevitable for Edge of Sanity, and it's got to be one of the first death metal albums of its type (highly melodic Swedish death metal though). For the most part, it succeeds.

Coming off a streak of great albums like Unorthodox, The Spectral Sorrows and Purgatory Afterglow is no easy feat, and I did feel this album was a little weaker. "Crimson" is a 40 minute long affair which tells the story of a tragic future in which humanity has lost its ability to reproduce, until one day a new child is mysteriously born. But is this child a gift from God or the infernal? It's an interesting enough concept, and lyrically the album gets pretty dark.

'She drinks the life-blood from the feebled man.
Empty bodies, soul-drained by the virgin queen.
Finally given the pleasure to die.
She aligns the hate inside their hearts.
Her chosen knights will make sure all life departs.'

The major issue I had with the album is the very formulaic means by which this is delivered. It seems more like a bunch of riffs thrown together that were intended for separate songs, and you wind up with a pretty dull pattern of melodic death section - acoustic section - melodic death - melodic death - acoustic, and so forth.

Now, Edge of Sanity is a good band, and they definitely have a dozen or so riffs on this album worth hearing. Any fan of Purgatory Afterglow or the later Infernal will probably enjoy the material here. In addition, there are some guest spots from Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt, and the long nature of the work may appeal to fans of that band. The sequel to this was released in 2003, and while it was a little better, neither of the Crimson albums are among the best of Edge of Sanity material.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Edge of Sanity’s Crimson is a helluva technical death metal album that should not, and must not, be missed by any decent heavy metal fan, period.

The album, Crimson, is a single 40 minute track whose flurry of riffs and interludes will astounds you. The track deals with a huge problem humanity faces “x” years into the future, they are infertile, i.e. they can’t breed. As humanity dies off, a new hope is born. The king and queen are able to have a baby girl, and to the remaining people, this is a sign of the gods that humanity is not down for the count just yet. When the princess is a teen though, her father dies, and huge wars are waged in order to see who will be the future king/queen of the humans. After the war is over, and there’s a new king established, some rebels take the princess away, in order to protect her. She soon gains new powers, establishes herself as the queen of humanity, but years later, she is captured and, obviously, raped, and soon has a kid, the future king.

The song’s music is just plain amazing. Depending on which part of the song you’re on, there’s something to be liked about it. The song is just really well done. While it is complex, it seems honest, not over thought, which, to me at least, seems to happen to a lot of progressive/technical metal bands. The riffs sound great, inspired, awesome, fresh and many more positive adjectives which I will not list here. Of special notice on this record are the vocals. The song uses a mixture of clean and cookie monster vocals, to great effect. The mellower parts use a combination of both, the important parts use the clean vocals, and the rest of the song just uses harsh vocals. The rhythm section would be my only complaint though. The bass and the drums don’t really have much of a presence here, and they just, well, keep rhythm, and that’s pretty much it.

Overall, Crimson should be heard by any decent metal fan, though the record doesn’t really tread new ground, musically speaking. The concept is really nice though, since humanity ends by a more or less biological mean rather than itself. Great album.

Crimson by Edge of Sanity consists of only one song, but that one song is 40 minutes in length, explaining the lack of other material. When I mention this, most people fail to see the greatness. 40:00 of death metal, is it not boring and repetitive? If it did, one would have to call Crimson a failure. But the truth is, Crimson is never tedious nor monotonous. It has to be admitted that many riffs are used more than once, but in and of itself, this does not make the song repetitive, as most music is structured in a similar fashion, and the number of riffs and sections in Crimson is sufficiently large.

Crimson is essentially a concept "album" with only one track. The story is set in a dystopian, far future, when mankind, now ruled by a king and queen, has lost the ability to breed and is thus on the verge of extinction. But a glimmer of hope appears, as the queen gives birth to a princess. Is this the salvation of mankind, "a gift from the skies of life divine"? Due to the nature of this album, I highly recommend having the lyrics in front of you the first few times you listen to it, the story being an integral part of the experience. For me, my appreciation of Crimson grew - even though it was already enormous - as I gained a fuller grasp of the story.

The music fits very well with the dystopian visions, portraying them accurately. The mood is melancholic when introducing the doomed humans, hopeful when the Princess is born, and the growls send shivers down the spine when the forces of evil enter. Undoubtedly, most of the riffs of Crimson are classic killers. . Dan Swanö's vocals are, I think, possibly the best he has ever done, especially the clean ones. Also, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth fame contributes with some guitars, and a notable scream around the 29-minute mark.

In conclusion, Crimson is a masterpiece, but even the word masterpiece fails to describe just how great this work is. If you do not already own it, be sure to buy it, or you will have missed one of the best metal albums. Ever.

Everything that is good and beautiful about metal, fantasy and stories in general is displayed in this 40-minute epic, truly the best song ever written. Swanö did a magnificent job on the lyrics, a story about a torn kingdom, a mysterious chamber with vaults of deadly crimson water, and an evil queen out to destroy the world. The excellent tale is supported by even better music. Starting off with a blast, the album goes from bombastic to softer and melodic to fast and wild and back to bombastic multiple times, sometime throwing in doom and heavy metal bits, mixing in crazy solos, brilliant keyboard support and one hell of a vocalist.

Nothing compares to this song. It's never a few songs tied together, it's never boring, it's never a chain of random pieces of metal. Everything fits. When the Queen tells her people to kill themselves, the music turns hypnotizing, just like the Queen. A mighty roar sounds when war is uphand. A soft and magical part pops in when the spirit of the dead king talks to his servants.

Buy this album. Now. You won't be sorry. And I advise you to at least once listen the whole song with the lyrics sheets in front of you. It is an experience unlike any other.

When people think of the most influential death metal bands and albums, they will almost always mention Possessed's Seven Churches, Death's Leprosy, Morbid Angel's Alters of Madness, Carnage's Dark Recollections, Carcass' Symphonies of Sickness, Cynic's Focus, Atheist's Piece of Time, Entombed's Left Hand Path, Suffocation's Pierced from Within, At the Gates' first two albums... etc. But for some strange reason Edge of Sanity's Crimson is overlooked. It may be true that Crimson might not have changed the direction of the genre on a very high scale, but no one can deny that this album has breathed new life into the overblown death metal scene in the 90's when every other band prefered to walk in the footsteps of their pioneers. Dan Swano had the will and courage to create something different, namely a one-track album with a running time of 40+ minutes instead of copy-cating whatever was 'the big thing' in 1996. Having recorded and produced tons of bands and also the first two Opeth albums including songs like "Black Rose Immortal" it is no wonder why he was so independent-minded, bold, intelligent and independent to experiment with his music. Dan has always looked for different ways to express himself and with Crimson he proved to be one of the most creative artists of the decade.

Crimson is definitely Edge of Sanity's most lauded recording to date. Although Dan has mentioned that he thinks the Unorthodox album is by far his favourite and Crimson was recorded when the band was in a very bad state, I still consider it a true masterpiece! It easily paved the way for so many other bands with its rich content and song structures which simply refuse to compromise. The music is very experimental borrowing lots of elements from the 70's and blending them seamlessly with the fundamental parts of death metal. Dan uses both his death and clean vocals, and also Mike from Opeth does some killer death grunts to bring this 40-minute CD more depth and life. This album features very melodic and intricate riffs including acoustic passages and unexpected key and tempo changes. Generally most death metal releases focus on destruction and single-minded fury, but Crimson isn't afraid to lend itself to various other pursuits. It delivers consistent musical and lyrical themes from beginning to end. I doubt Dan Swano and his friends in EOS were aware of the fact that they were pushing the limits of death metal to unfathomable artistic heights when they were recording this CD. I'm glad they did because even after 8 years of its release I still love playing it and enjoy every second on it. Dan recently put out a sequel to Crimson which is also highly recommended not to mention his solo album Moontower, and his more prog rock driven projects Nightingale and Unicorn, all of which are intense, poignant, bold, and independent works of art.