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Rating:
As promised in the review of “Considered Dead,” here comes the one for the subsequent masterpiece “The Erosion Of Sanity,” dated 1993. The shift compared to the previous album is clear and evident: the sounds become harsher and more grating, and the Death elements fade to make way for contaminations. Luc Lemay, this is again the name to associate with this album; the singer-guitarist is finally consecrated not only as an impeccable performer but also as an authentic musical genius. Schizophrenic and unpredictable times that change constantly in a kaleidoscope of anguish and delirium, enhanced by the screeching notes of the guitars and sealed by bass lines that clash with the guitar riffs. The result is an absolutely disharmonious album, light-years away from the Death of the early '90s and projected into an unprecedented experimentalism for the time: Cryptopsy attempted something similar in 1998 with “Whisper Supremacy,” but in the meantime, Gorguts had already released “Obscura,” further pushing the line of sonic extremism and condemning their compatriots to second place in inventiveness (even if first in technical skill).
Eight songs, rigorously fast, each one darker and rougher than the last. It’s difficult to choose a representative track, perhaps “A Path Beyond Premonition” for its dissonances and for the complexity of the structure and riffs: also to be mentioned is “Condemned To Obscurity” which, with its beautiful and haunting piano intro, leaves the listener victim to the Canadians’ sonic terrorism, best expressing the mood of the album. The technique is excellent and excels in originality and innovation of the genre's structures; the vocals are slightly lower than in the previous album, but remain fairly clean and lend the work that touch of emotion that differentiates it from other unfruitful works filled with virtuosity. Lemay delights (or tortures) us with all his rabid despair and leads us deep into a spiral of musical visions, well expressed by the lyrics (which definitively abandon the gruesome deaths of the debut), mostly delirious and irrational.
Heavy, sinister, and harsh; it is certainly an album in which to focus all our attention to uncover all its countless peculiarities and to be led into the world of the most frightening fears. Those seeking an innovative sound, those who want a Brutal Death CD (even if the definition is starting to feel narrow) of the highest quality, those who want the album that foretold the genre's contaminations, or simply those who are in search of strong emotions, must procure this album.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Condemned to Obscurity (04:50)
The bright light of day
You'll no longer see
In a blind dimension
Henceforward you'll be
A burying in darkness, you will have to bear
Deep, you're drowned, in this optical nightmare
In vortex, your visions collapse instantly
Now your life is condemned to obscurity
Condemned to obscurity
Of your eyes you are deprived
Now touch what you would've seen
Like if you still had those eyes <i>[x2]
Lost in this void of light
There is nothing to see, everything to feel
With no more sense of sight
There is nothing to see, everything to fear
In the gloomy vault of nothingness
My imagination will agonize
Suffering of a psychic blindness
Nothing is all I recognize
In a blind dimension, henceforward you'll be
Buried in darkness and obscurity
Where visions in vortex collapse endlessly
For life, you are condemned to obscurity
Lost in this void of light
There is nothing to see, everything to feel
With no more sense of sight
There is nothing to see, everything to fear
04 Orphans of Sickness (05:20)
In the tombs of pain and innocence
Forever were buried
Souls of those who've never asked to be
Scornfully immolated
The art of transplantation
Has saved a lot of lives
By frauding a child's adoption
I will be saving mine
[Lead: Lemay]
In the name of science
They've claimed being our saviors
Money is what keeps busy
These medical butchers
Soiled with blood all over their hands
They've just killed for a cuople of grand
Orphans of sickness were put to rest
Miserable adoption has torn their souls to shreds
Orphans of sickness now dwell in death
With nice tags on their organs, their existence will end
[Lead: Lemay]
Children were dissected
By those sick, demented
In the tombs of pain and innocence
Forever were buried
Souls of those who've never asked to be
Scornfully immolated
To achieve my transplantation
I stole a lot of lives
Through the kindness of adoption
All those lives are now mine
Orphans of sickness were put to rest
Miserable adoption has torn their souls to shreds
Orphans of sickness now dwell in death
With nice tags on their organs, their existence will end
05 Hideous Infirmity (04:05)
Suddenly facial remains everywhere
Perpetual disfigurement that I'll have to bear
My hideous infirmity
Brings disgust to their faces
Destined to have a mask
Stuck on my face forever
Unconscious, here I lie
As I'm waiting my demise
The only thing that I had in my mind
Was to leave this world for a better life
But I never thought I would fail
My inflicted homicide
Grafting and countless surgeries
Just can't embellish my monstrosity
(Lead: Lemay)
Grafting and countless surgeries
Just can't embellish my monstrosity
(Lead: Marcoux)
Gruesome scars on my face
Which will never be erased
Having lived with this pain in mind
Make me see this world through a different eye
But it's up to them to change
Their biases inside
When I came near losing my own life
It made me learn the true meaning of a smile
My hideous infirmity
Brings disgust to their faces
Destined to have a mask
Stuck on my face forever
06 A Path Beyond Premonition (04:56)
A way to travel
Discover and explore
Through man's anterior lives
To learn unspokenlores
Regression of the mind
Can't make it possible
To bring back existence
Where you had once dwelled before
Dormant souls... Resurrected
A brain transfer
From a sick man to a fresh cadaver
Prolongs the phases
To scan beyond his alzheimer
A rediscovery
Of lives which were forsaken
Avoid the frips of mortality
From the end life begins
Awakening of previous entities... Gensesis origins
Once revived
The brain functions would all deteriorate
His mental and physical
No longer would respond
When they split his skull apart
His brain and soul was gonl... Mysteriously
A way to travel
Discover and explore
Through man's anterior lives
To learn unspokenlores
Regression of the mind
Can't make it possible
To bring back existence
Where you had once dwelled before
Mortal fool.. mutilated
[Solo: Lemay. Marcoux, Lemay, Marcoux]
07 Odors of Existence (03:47)
Since the earth was devestated
I alone, got isolated
Where daylight can't penetrate
Trapped beneath remains, I wait
Crawling survivors
Are screaming for life on their knees
Soon to be discovered
Stench-filled carcasses underneath
For such a long time
I've been trapped
So I can't tell if it's day or night
If only my cries
Could reach the surface
Inhabitated by mankind
They're searching for lives
Deception prevails, more corpses are piled
If they run out of time
Nothing more than shreds of carrion they'll find
Odors of existence
[Lead: Marcoux, Lemay]
If you smell the odours
To a rotted death it will lead
But among these odours
I'm still undiscovered beneath
08 Dormant Misery (04:53)
Deep inside
Beyond all conceptions
Unconsciousness hides
A comatose existence
As your mind falls asleep
A second life is awakening
Far beyond imagination
The world of dream is where...
Your second soul will perish... Endlessly
Lands which no one's seen before... Dark as hell
There, alone, you are in this vault of fear
In imagination, time does not exist
'Till the end you'll bear this dormant misery
This dormant misery
[Lead: Lemay]
As you were opening your eyes
Your soul reinstates in consciousness
Reinstates in consciousness
Once the shades of reality disappear
In the shades of mortality they reappear
Far beyond
Dark imagination
Unconsciousness hides
A comatose existence
[Lead: Marcoux]
Next time when you fall asleep in your bed
Stiff and cold you'll be... dreaming with the dead
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