Into Cold Darkness

Here we see Vital Remains still in a rather primordial period of their career. We don't have Dave Suzuki mercilessly smashing the drums, nor do we have Glen Benton growling away on vocals. Instead, it's Tony, Joe and old vocalist Jeff Gruslin doing what they do best. I have no idea who handles lead guitar and drums on here, but they're competent too.

The overall feel of the album is cold, an anomaly in death metal. Keyboards are used sparingly at key moments to create a really sinister atmosphere. The mid-section of "Immortal Crusade," for example, and the end of "Under the Moon's Fog," which recalls Mayhem's "Freezing Moon." Several songs rely a lot more on utter speed, like "Crown of the Black Hearts," and "Descent Into Hell," but there are great break downs. No, not dumbed down core breaks, but fucking heavy, thrash influenced breaks. Tony Lazaro certainly is a master of creating great riffs.

Jeff shines on here, as he did on the debut, with his unique voice. I don't know why he left the band, but it's certainly a shame that he did.

My biggest gripe here is the production. Where as the guitar tone, drums and everything else on Let Us Pray was unrestrained in an old school fashion, here it sounds like there is a good deal of compression on the guitars and possibly triggered bass drums (I'm not too sure on the latter, but the drum sound is certainly a bit restrained). Where a blasting section shows up, it just kind of cruises at a safe speed, instead of feeling chaotic and unrestrained. It adds a degree of coldness the the album, but a robotic coldness, not a permafrost coldness. Not good, but at least the heavier, midpaced parts still seem demonic.

And finally, curses and drat to Peaceville for the VERY SHITTY packaging on this "remaster." No lyrics booklet, and not even any fucking credits...who is with Joe, Tony, and Jeff on here? Barney the big purple fucking dinosaur?