Alchemist
Lunasphere

A few days after the release of their latest album, "Tripsis," it finally seems that someone has noticed this Australian band that seems truly close to entering the Olympus of big names in heavy metal.

Today’s Alchemist, however, is a formation extremely distant from the one you could listen to several years ago, when they were still devoted to a death metal rich in technical nuances (not progressive, technical) that recalled bands like Death and the early Atheist, rather than Tool and Voivod, to which they are compared nowadays.

The last album produced by the band that still followed the death canon dates back to as far as 1995 and goes by the name "Lunasphere".

It is immediately noticeable how the band’s soul presents itself as decidedly wild, with massive sound barriers that literally overwhelm the listener during all the tracks, yet presenting some instrumental refinements and solutions of fine workmanship.

The opening of the LP is entrusted to "Soul Return", introduced by the scream/growl of the good Adam Agius, who delivers a performance decidedly far from today's standards, being much less refined and often resulting in high-pitched screams of clear black metal ancestry. The musical base, however, presents as a "blow" in the face, in which the drums play a major role, almost always using a double bass and weaving complex and never trite rhythms, yet not excessively redundant. The central instrumental break, however, already hints at the finesse for which the band will become famous (at least in their homeland), with a fine use of synthesizers and guitars that, unlike many bands that make speed of execution one of the main weapons for composing music, prefer to experiment with strange effects and very slow, reflective melodic lines. At the end of the instrumental interlude, however, they return to pounding heavily, with an Agius still in great shape and capable of extremely powerful, almost raw vocalizations.

With "Lunation", the foot continues to press on the accelerator: the intro, almost muted, then catapults us into an in-your-face track that reminded me of some moments, the most technical ones, of Cannibal Corpse (those of "Hammer Smashed Face" just to be clear), at least until the band starts experimenting again with melodies beyond any logical conception. This time the bass definitely stands out, especially in the second half, proposing unusual, but decidedly fascinating melodies. A simple drum beat introduces us to "Unfocused", a track perhaps closest to today’s Alchemist, at least in the introductory part, in which the singing is absent; however, when it makes its entrance, the mystical atmosphere of the first section vanishes, giving way to the blind fury, which transforms into extreme vocal and musical lines.

"Luminous" is instead a brief instrumental that immerses us in a world made of tribal rhythms and music and acts as a prelude to the fifth episode of the album: "Clot", which once again alternates almost relaxed instrumental parts with more intense ones, emphasized by the presence of the scream (and it is precisely in the setting of the scream that influences from black metal resurface) repeating “Clot Clot Clot.” The four final episodes do not betray expectations either: it starts with the very good "Yoni Kunda", where more properly progressive elements, especially regarding the guitars, make an appearance; following that, we are catapulted into the experimental death metal of "My Animated Truth", in which avant-garde flavored keyboards and synthesizers coexist with frantic rhythms. The guitars also contribute to giving the song a strong charge, appearing highly powerful, yet refined and capable of solos of great taste.

The penultimate title, "Garden Of Eroticism" was the song that struck me the most, with its tribal stride, tinged with influences derived from techno thrash with some touches of Voivodian cyber origin, especially concerning the guitars and bass (it reminded me of what Newsted proposed in “Nothingface”). The vocals this time appear only for a few moments towards the end, in which the alternation between scream and growl is found again. The concluding "Closed Chapter" brings us back to more properly thrash/death territories, closing the work in more than dignified fashion.

The record presents itself, from a purely compositional point of view, as a platter almost devoid of smudges (apart from a few too many experiments and some dissonance between melodies and rhythmic bases), but the downside is represented by the really low-quality production and unacceptable even for the era, which does not do justice to the work done by the band, appearing dirty and inaccurate and making the sounds of individual instruments unclear, with volumes sometimes adjusted in a totally off way (especially regarding the drums in various episodes).

However, closing an eye to this shortcoming, attributable moreover to a lack of funds on the band’s part, we are faced with a well-crafted record, gifting us with a cohesive group already capable of producing high-quality work at that time.

Line-up:

Adam Agius – guitars and vocals

John Bray – bass

Rodney Holder – drums

Roy Trokington – guitars

Tracklist

1) Soul Return

2) Lunation

3) Unfocused

4) Luminous

5) Clot

6) Yoni Kunda

7) My Animated Truth

8) Garden Of Eroticism

9) Closed Chapter