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Disillusion - Back To Times Of Splendor review




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Reviewer:
9.0

333 users:
8.63
Band: Disillusion
Album: Back To Times Of Splendor
Release date: April 2004


01. ...And The Mirror Cracked
02. Fall
03. Alone I Stand In Fires
04. Back To Times Of Splendor
05. A Day By The Lake
06. The Sleep Of Restless Hours

I'm always ranting about when the next thing in Metal is gonna come right?, well finally and after months of waiting I have found a new contestant to my annual "Best new/unknown/underrated act of the year", the entry? Disillusion, the label? Metal Blade Records, the result? An exquisite piece of work!

Let's head back a little first shall we? Disillusion is a relatively new band, formed in 2001, they released a 4-track Demo and a Mcd before grabbing a record deal, and releasing this, their debut album "Back To Times Of Splendor".

This album is just great, all of it, the variety and mix of different elements makes of this a real pleasure to the ears, take note that the album contains only 6 songs, but lasts almost an hour, so be warned because the songs are lengthy, but don't worry, no song becomes boring at any point, the great mixture of Progressive Metal with Death and Trash Metal that Disillusion offer to us, brings really something new to the scene.

The opener song "And The Mirror Cracked" shows us a first glimpse of what's Disillusion capable of, the song have great fast-paced aggressive moments, coupled with great Death Metal vocals, then countered by excellent clear vocals, and more accessible modern parts (modern, not commercial, don't be mistaken), all through the 8 minutes of the opener you can listen tempo breaks, creative songwriting and a great acoustic part in the middle of the song, when I listened this track, I knew I was in love with this band.

But things don't end there, the second song, "Fall" opens with a groovy, almost Rock n' Roll riff, the clean vocals take hold of this song, and when the tempo breaks to give entrance to the chorus section I know that I'm in front of another winner here.
The real highlight of the album is the awesome title song, "Back To Times Of Splendor" is a 14 minute masterpiece, this song features even a violin, that incredibly, fits perfect with the music, the song is pure intensity, and let me tell you that keeping that intensity for 14 minutes is really hard.

I could go and describe each minute of every song, but I'll let the music do the talking, my advice, get this album immediately, bands like Disillusion come once in a while only, and for all of you with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), don't worry about the lengthiness of the songs, they won't drag you down to the land of no thoughts, they'll keep you interested at all times.

Special mention to the excellent production, because is really crisp and you can hear each instrument in place, the cover art is beautiful, sadly I can't say the same for the inside booklet which is a little plain for my tastes.
Anyway, for a great piece of creativeness I strongly recommend this album, one of the best surprises of the year so far, and a sure candidate for my top ten of the year.

Written by Undercraft | 06.05.2004



Guest review by
qlacs
Rating:
N/A
I guess it's one of those few records that either you get or you probably never will.

Read more ››
published 20.11.2017 | Comments (3)


Comments

Comments: 13   Visited by: 236 users
09.07.2006 - 09:38
Gefahr

Yu're absolutely right dude this is a killer album.

I love the mix of progressive elements with melodeath/thrash riffs just great.....Great musicians awesome.....
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METAL UP YOUR ASS!!!!!!
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06.01.2007 - 18:38
Rating: 8
Talvi

Oh man, this album it's far beyond amazing...
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My account on other musical pages:
http://www.last.fm/user/Pozito/
http://rateyourmusic.com/~Talvi
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14.06.2007 - 17:00
dark awakening

this album is simply great!
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Baptized in a lake of acid tears...
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31.01.2008 - 01:57
Chrome54
Account deleted
Marvelous album, absolutely recommended.
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21.05.2008 - 08:13
Rating: 8
tiimmmmmyyy

Rockin' album. Good review.
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-Tim
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12.11.2008 - 21:03
Dreamwar_86
To Arms!
One of the best album since 2000
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Stay Metal !!!
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22.05.2010 - 19:39
Rating: 9
tea[m]ster
Au Pays Natal
So full of energy, excellent production and discovering new tidbits with each listen promote this album as one of the best prog efforts of the last decade
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rekt
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18.09.2010 - 06:09
advent

Well i tried a lot to like but it just another regular prog album for me, it is heavy but lacks originality , or maybe it just me.
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14.07.2011 - 15:16
Rating: 10
Kuroboshi

It's only you. One of my favorite albums ever. You pretty much caught my thoughts on this album with your review, thanks!
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27.07.2011 - 12:47
Rating: 9
Yugosaki

I dont see/ hear what is so good about this
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaEBpRWr2IA
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28.07.2011 - 10:37
Rating: 10
R'Vannith
ghedengi
Surely one of the most captivating metal albums I've ever heard, oddly enough it also introduced me to Death metal.
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23.10.2014 - 19:45
Rating: 10
sam1oq

This album is just perfect. Definitely my favorite album ever. But how I discovered this band was quite amazing. I was a bit depressed, googled "disillusion" and came to this. Thank you Google. Best album ever, beats Metallica, Maiden and Megadeth as far as I've listened to them.
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30.01.2015 - 21:25
Luneth
Account deleted
What an incredible album. Literally every song is incredible, 10/10. The last two songs are my favourite, then the middle two (Alone I stand in Fires is very good and I love that 8/5 drum piece in the title song.) I feel like I'm on a dystopic world when I listen to this.
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