ATROCITY – Atlantis

From time to time you encounter surprises. This album was one of those surprises, and a positive one too! I’d really never listened to Atrocity before receiving this album. In fact, my only exposure to them was a rather humoristic performance on VHS from the Dynamo Open Air Festival in 1998. Surprisingly, though, large parts of this album actually kinda blew me away, almost all the way to that very island…

Front man Alexander Krull – who must possess hair that’s the second longest in the business (no, third I mean – next to Warrel Dane’s and Joey DeMaios unruly crop of nose hair) – and his gang have made a diverse, powerful, and, at times, very catchy Death/Gothic/Pop/Heavy record, with good production and some clever lyrics.

There are quite a few highlights here – the opener “Reich of Phenomena” and “Clash of the Titans” are filled with sympho-death galore, huge guitars, quadruple bass drums, and nice orchestrations to finish things off. The keys help forming Atrocity’s sound, and they are central on almost all tracks, especially on “Clash…”

Still, although there is enough brutality within the album, the melodies are there all the same, and “Gods of Nations,” “Enigma,” “The Sunken Paradise,” and “Cold Black Days” are true melodic superpower bombs (meaning “very powerful”) with hit choruses to die for. The latter is the album’s first single, and is a HIM/Pain style of track (imagine a German version of In Flames’ “The Quiet Place” for a more recent comparison), and is accompanied by an exciting video. This song will probably burn quite a few Beck’s – or Heineken – calories imbibed during late night Metal discos in central Europe. The other three of the tracks mentioned above are heavier and more standard Metal numbers, and they actually manage to bring some freshness into a scene, which has been rather stellar lately. The melodies are fresh and original, and there’s enough punch to justify the band’s mean machine-image. The choirs in “Enigma” produce a great effect, and this should be a lesson to upcoming Euro-Metal bands regarding the art of arranging music.

“Ichor” and “Atlantean Empire” are heavier, more groove-based numbers, which also work very well. Krull’s voice is OK, although he’s no Akerfeldt or Glen Benton on this album. Also, on a very positive note, the rhythm section is definitely successful in laying down some really nice grooves.

I’ve been generally positive here, and although there are some boring parts in this album – for example neither “Superior Race” nor “Omen” will ever have a central place in my life – this is overall a very well-written, well-produced, well-played, and damn great Metal album! Maybe it lacks a bit of originality – growing male voices, female soprano choir voices, dark lyrics, and heavy guitars have all been done before – but it sounds awesome, and that’s what really matters in the end, doesn’t it. Yep!