CRIMSON

Crimson - a single 40-minute song - is acclaimed as the proggiest that death metal goes, certainly by the time it was released in 1996. It sounds surprisingly coherent, but I like to think of it not as a composition - there is little of advanced compositional technique to speak of - but rather as a story set to continuous stream of music. Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt was involved, and it shows - it's the familiar for fans of Opeth's mid-period formula of death metal interspersed with calm breaks and more traditional thrash and power metal moments. It's actually fairly accessible and melodic by death metal standards. But I still think it's overrated. It's no Opeth. Calmer breaks are mostly just what they are - breaks, not countermelodies. Production and clean singing is weak - and I'm sick of the excuse that's its weak because it's supposed to convey a theme that is bleak. Opeth's Ghost Reveries production - now that kicks some serious behind.