The Last Door

The Eastern European music scene of the early-90's remained relatively unaffected by the groovy aggro-trends which were devastating the west at the time, and this is probably the main reason why some of the finest albums of the decade came from there. Russia and Poland had already managed to develop sizable scenes by the beginning of the '90s, the other countries from the region adding the casual more prominent practitioner to mildly tease the dominant forces. The Czech Republic wasn't overtly enthusiastic in taking part in the musical evolution of the area when it comes to thrash metal in particular, but was at least successful in coming up with its own version of the Big Four: Torr (the almighty), Arakain, Debustrol, and Asmodeus, all of them still alive and well at present. Some smaller fish (Atomic, Ferat, Kryptor) were also roaming around those peers in order to make their name heard, and moderately succeeded mostly in their homeland and the neighbours around.

It was next to impossible for one-album-wonders, especially coming from non-traversed areas like Eastern Europe, to get a wider exposure outside the deep underground, and this is where buried treasures have been lying there for years... Those musicians residing in bigger cities had a bigger chance to at least have their name briefly mentioned, and these Prague surgeons ("chirurgia" means "surgery" in Czech) were some of the lucky ones; to the fans' utter delight, of course, since behind this medical name hides the most technically-crafted music to ever come out of the small republic, at least a half head above other exploits in technical mastery from there, like Crionic's "Different" and Anachronic's "Lame Gart and..", both released in 1993 as well. The guys by all means had plenty of grand models to follow including some freshly released masterpieces in the neighbour Germany (Depressive Age, Megace, Mekong Delta, End Amen, etc.), but one would hardly be prepared for the unleashed mastery from the very first track “Into the Black Holes of My Mind” which starts twisting in a creepy chaotic fashion recalling one of the finest achievements of the whole technical metal scene: Target’s “The Coming of Chaos” from “Master Project Genesis”. The twisted stylish thrashisms come accompanied by not very striking subdued semi-declamatory deathly vocals which remain the weakest link here.

The surreal rifforama goes on with “Miracle (Heresy)”, a faster-paced puzzler with a death metal flavour spiced with a hallucinogenic mid-break; but it’s “Muted Salieri” which goes away with all the laurels, a chaotically arranged vortex of time and tempo changes which overlap each other ala early Mekong Delta, and would mute not only Salieri, but also Mozart and everyone else exposed to it. Some discordant thrashy jazz comes served with “Jazz Club Tonight”, another standout exercise in surreal technicality with a few more direct hard-hitting sections. “Mother (Song About Incest)” is a whirlwind of clever vitriolic guitars which spiral up before a portion of ultra-technical, almost backward, play interferes to further perplex the listener. Enters the title-track which is a tad less dynamic, but rest assured that there’s no technicality lost on it, and the exiting section would be a delight with the faster pace and the chaotic melodic leads springing out of nowhere.

The second half mirrors the first one, the exemplary technical performance particularly high on the shredding madness “Technoviolence” which indeed becomes fairly violent due to a brutal proto-blasting death metal passage inserted in the middle, the latter also encountered on the short twisted rager “One of Em” later. The rest of the material remains on the highly-stylized side “Agony” providing the serene pause, a calm ballad with acoustic guitar acrobatics: even on this one the band refuse to lay their technical weapons to rest. “Funeral of My Dreams” closes this very eventful saga with illogical build-ups which straighten up in the middle to offer a more intense headbanging moment, the riffy weirdness returning for the exiting slab of super-technicality which virtually sums up what the listener had to cope with here.

This is so impeccably-crafted that one would bother to check if the musicians hadn’t taken part in other, more renowned acts on the field, before and after. But no; the guys only had this project on their hands if we exclude the short spell which the guitar player Pavel Skoupy had with the grindcore/death metallers Big Yellow Day a few years back (from now). Deep silence followed after this album before the band re-emerged with “Deep Silence” almost 10 years later. The pertinent death metal shadow, which was looming so heavily over the debut, is now completely gone, and the eclecticism has reached new heights with a wide gamut of nuances added: jazz again in more copious amounts, funk, post-thrash, alternative, proto-groove, etc., all this on a stylish technical base the latter ephemerally relating this new opus to the previous one. This is unmistakably the surgeons over again, but the guys have spaced out quite a bit reaching the borders of weirdness created by acts like Doom (Japan) and the Swiss Verwaint with ease, still staying within the acceptable confines, unlike those two.

The band are still active and may be cooking another schizoid offspring now as we speak, somewhere deep in the Prague underground. Its appearance will be sudden and unheralded so many will be the wounded once these precise scalpels start cutting and twisting again.