CRIMSON II

I've always been rather disappointed with this Crimson sequel. It's a good but unnecessary album that rarely stirred my interest. I've become a bit milder towards it over the years but I still have a hard time ignoring the terrible production to be able to enjoy any of it.

It's surprising really. Dan Swanö played this album almost entirely by himself and he produced it as well. I liked his production work on the early Opeth and some Katatonia albums, but for some inexplicable reason he has completely butchered his own album to death. Everything is overstressed, all dynamics are blurred in the overstated thickness of the sound: the guitars are far too upfront in the mix, everything is drowned in reverb and why would anyone want drums to sound so synthetic in 2003? Beats me. Imagine this album had Martin Lopez on the drums and had sounded more organic, more natural. Now, that could have been a blast. I'm also not too big on the twittering keyboards but I guess they won't hurt fans of the instrument.

There are plenty of good grooves, it flows fluently for its entire 40 minutes and there's head-banging drama aplenty. It's a shame really, 4 star potential, produced into a mess. 2.5 stars