Hallucinations

Atrocity's first full length album was the ground-breaking and incredibly unique "Hallucinations", which still stands today as one of the best technical death metal albums ever written. To think that this band came out of the gate with such a mature release is simply astounding, and it really goes to show how talented many death metal musicians are.

In 1990, not many bands were experimenting with death metal. Atheist had already foreshadowed their progressive future with a couple of the songs on 1989's "Piece of Time", but that album was still mostly pure, in your face death metal with much of the progression still yet to come. Death would also begin to hint at a slightly more melodic and progressive direction with "Human" in 1991, and a couple years later Cynic could be seen combining elements of death metal with jazz fusion and progressive rock on "Focus", but one album which preceded most of these albums and is sadly overlooked is Atrocity's "Hallucinations".

If you are looking for an album which mixes jazz with death metal, or whatever, you'll not be interested in this. This is totally death metal through and through, with no other genres at all, and it is "progressive" in the sense that it is unique and innovative, not in the sense that it goes from a blast beat and death growl one second to a mellotron and clean vocal the next! When you listen to a song like "Life is a Long and Silent River", the intro alone should be enough to convince you that this is no "normal" death metal band, with many of these ideas being far weirder and more unexpected than anything bands like Cynic, Atheist, or Death ever did, because they are not simply taking other genres and combining those ideas with death metal. Instead, they are taking death metal and using it to create very weird and interesting ideas, if that makes any sense. Listen to the title track, "Hallucinations", or "Abyss of Addiction" for a good example of how weird some of the riffs and ideas sound. However, while they may be weird, they also work. These songs don't come across as a 3-minute exercise in "who can come up with a weirder idea", because they are memorable and strong riffs. The songs are structured so that many of the stranger ideas will be bridged by a simpler, more straight-forward riff, or written so that the weirder riffs have a catchy or memorable hook which makes them fun and interesting to listen to beyond the 'what the fuck?' factor. The opening to "Defeated Intellect" is a good example, or the absolutely amazing breakdown/chorus to "Hold Out (Until the End)" which is easily one of the strongest moments on the whole album, with lyrics you will not be able to hold yourself back from chanting ("HOLD OUT-UNTIL THE END-RESIST-AND LIVE").

The album is also keeps itself pretty straight forward at times. In addition to the weird unexpected, we also get a healthy dose of the familiar (but always loveable) thrashy old school death sound we are used to hearing in landmark albums like "Altars of Madness" or "Leprosy". The vocals of Alexander Krull help to reinforce this, because he growls with the classic, Chuck Schuldiner-esque sound, with a handful of deeper grunts reminiscent of Kam Lee. However, there are plenty of classic death metal riffs to be heard on here in every song, just listen to "Fatal Step" for a good example of that.

The lyrics are another great point here. Instead of gore or Satanism, we have a concept album about drug abuse and addiction. The album starts out with a bang with some of the most shocking lyrics I have ever read in a death metal song ("Deep in Your Subconscious") before settling down into something less shocking or disturbing, but no less tragic (well, depending on how you look at it, I guess) for the remainder of the story. I won't spoil the events of the story, but rest assured that this album is not condoning drug abuse. It's a concept album about a little girl whose life is ruined by the substance, and in my opinion the band puts the message across with a great deal of maturity, and the lyrics really make you think. There is a bit of broken English to be found, but the lyrics are still pretty well written (if not straight forward).

This is the first album I have ever heard of Atrocity, but I'm already very excited to hear what "Toddesucht" (or however you spell it) will sound like! This was an amazing masterpiece of an album and certainly something which no one who loves death metal should miss out on. I don't have any complaints at all, so I will rate it with a 94%. Hopefully you will buy this album and love it as much as I did!