Agony

There's not a lot to say about this album, because it's brilliance can be described quite quickly.

To be honest, I don't like the typical, blasting all the way through every song, technical death metal style, but there are SOME exceptions. This album, in particular, took me by surprise. The video for 'The Violation' was in a related video on Youtube and I clicked on it, half I-bet-these-are-a-typical-technical-death-metal-band-let's-see-if-I'm-right and half curiosity. What I then heard blew me away. Almost literally. The speakers were set on maximum accidently.

The perfect blend of orchestra, death metal and clean vocals is, well, perfect. Despite a hell of a lot of blasting and tremolo-picked riffs, the songs are made memorable by the orchestration and the clean vocal passages. The band has really matured since their first album (which I listened to after hearing this album), realising that they don't have to stay in certain boundaries to be good, thus adding the orchestration and less complex riffs.

Final conclusion: Fucking brilliant. Although the blasting contradicts the orchestration in a near-genius way, there can be a bit too much. That is the only reason this album didn't get 100%. But, who knows, in time I might grow to appreciate constant blasting and this album might become 100% perfect

EDIT: I've grown to appreciate blasting a bit more and this album is now perfect.