Thanatos
Realm Of Ecstasy

After the excellent debut "Emerging From The Netherworlds," Thanatos return to make themselves heard in 1992 with this "Realm Of Ecstasy." Meanwhile, Death Metal (along with Grindcore) has made great strides, supplanting Thrash Metal as the extreme musical genre. Thus, our Dutch quartet finds itself having to compete with bands that were making a great name for themselves under important labels such as Earache and Roadrunner.

Our band remains faithful (or are they forced?) to the small German label Shark and do not change their lineup, rightly thinking of redefining their sound to put a spoke in the wheels of other Death bands, and perhaps secure a contract with a more prestigious record label. The remastered version of the album I purchased has a label that reads "Classic Death Metal Album!" And here, I completely disagree. It was about improving the debut to make the leap in quality, so the sound of this "Realm Of Ecstasy" is more ferocious and compressed, totally Death Metal from the first to the last note, therefore nothing to say against the production (with the good Posselt always behind the console). The solos by Erwin De Brouwer become less frantic, removing the keyboard effect, but they lose in creativity, even though they are good in my opinion. Even the drums are recorded with much more compact vibrations, maintaining the same diabolical strength. The positive notes end here and are not enough to make this record soar, which turns out to just be sufficient.

Stephan Gebédi's voice is greatly hardened, resembling that of Karl Willets, the historical singer of Bolt Thrower, hence more growly, cavernous, and somewhat muddled. And here the comparison with Martin Van Drunnen is inevitable: while Martin went from the growl (let's put it that way) of 'Malleus Malleficarum' to the thrilling growl of "Consuming Impulse" with nonchalance, here Stephan fails to capture the attention of the listener, as the words are mangled, not audible like Willets' for instance in "Warmaster." The various tracks lack imagination, starting with some nice melody but falling off over time. In "And Jesus Wept" there is a passage of epic guitars with zombie-like atmospheres roaming the streets, the title-track starts calm, almost Doom-like, and rises without exciting; "Human Combustion" and the final "Terminal Breath" are nice, with some melodic guitar. However, all suffer from the overly guttural singing, while the drums deliver lightning-fast breaks that say nothing, never making the piece shine, seeming put there just to create chaos.

"Tied Up, Sliced Up" seems like the craziest track, even in its lyrics, and could be the heir of "Bodily Dismemberment" from the previous album. Inspiration has dropped and the "craft" required to keep the listener's interest alive is not there. But then the album picks up at the end with the demo "Omnicoitor" (1989) as a bonus track; we find four compositions which are "War", "The Meaning Of Life", "Bodily Dismemberment", and "A-Thanasia". The first three were also in the debut, while the last one is unreleased. The sound is what it is, but damn if the tracks are tasty: right speed, good execution, vocals with jaguar-like hoarse breath but excellent. And plenty, plenty of grit. On the highway the other day, I got quite pumped with these demo songs; "War" was pounding well: perfectly timed rolls, feline runs on the cymbals, spontaneous voice. Also, on "A-Thanasia" there is a clumsy scream after a sweet beginning. Too bad for the missed opportunity.

After the album's release, Thanatos disbanded and Gebédi will reform the band for "Angelic Encounters" in 2000.