Edge of Sanity - Unorthodox (1992)^{Release ID: 614}

I always assumed that Edge of Sanity's earlier albums would contain none of the amazing song writing and melody that runs through their better albums. Crimson I and II are two of the finest records you'll ever hear but seeing an Edge of Sanity album labelled simply as death metal set off alarm bells for me. Surely without all the captivating progressiveness and catchy melodies, Unorthodox wouldn't be as enjoyable. While that's turned out to be true, I'm glad I checked this album out regardless.

Unorthodox is rooted in the Stockholm death metal tradition as every second album of this time seemed to be, yet Dan Swano and co. added doses of creativity and variety to an otherwise stock standard model. That Swedish death metal guitar sound is present, but it's mixed in with both changes in tempo and a whole bunch of melody. Check out the 7-minute epic Enigma for a cracking track. Filled with atmosphere, some clean vocals, multiple instruments, awesome death metal riffs and growls, I think this is one of my very favourite tracks ever! Unfortunately, while the rest of the album is solid, it rarely approaches this brilliance again. Closing track When All is Said, with its slow crushing presence and beautiful leads, is probably the only other track that comes within reach of this early set benchmark, but that's not to say that there's nothing else of note here. Every track is solid enough death metal with some interesting drumming and great vocals and riffs.

If anything, Unorthodox suffers from being a bit too long. At near an hour running time and 14 tracks, it could have done with a little fine tuning. But I have found it to be thoroughly entertaining and feel the above rating of around 3.5 is slightly underrating it. I guess if you compare it to some of Edge of Sanity's other albums, it's hard not to downgrade it. But taken in its own context, Unorthodox is a fine album and certainly worthy of your time.

I found myself in an interesting position after revisiting the 1991 "Nothing But Death Remains" debut album from Swedish death metallers Edge of Sanity last week. It probably shouldn't have been all that much of a surprise given my well-documented struggles with the more melodic end of the extreme metal spectrum but I discovered that I slightly preferred Edge of Sanity's rawer & more traditional first-up death metal effort over their more highly celebrated classics like 1994's "Purgatory Afterglow" & 1996's "Crimson", a position that puts me largely out on my own from what I've seen over the years. This left me wondering whether perhaps some of the albums in between might challenge for top honours though as I'd certainly been across all of the Edge of Sanity back catalogue during my tape trading days & remember those releases quite fondly too. One of my old tape traders (who also happened to be the bassist in Aussie doom/death band Elysium who I spent some time with) held the Swedes up as his very favourite band so I was always kept abreast of where Edge of Sanity were at, sometimes to the extent of force-feeding me if I'm being honest. Perhaps this has something to do with me not having returned to 1992's generally well received "Unorthodox" sophomore album since the late 1990's but it's time to fill the glaring gap in my ratings for what has gone on to become one of the more important bands in the whole Swedish death metal phenomenon.

Rightly or wrongly, "Nothing But Death Remains" hadn't exactly set the world on fire from a critical or commercial point of view but Edge of Sanity didn't lose hope, returning to the same studio they'd become comfortable with during the recording of their debut full-length (i.e. Montezuma Recordings in Stockholm) to knock out their second full-length effort. This time though, it seems that the band &/or executive producer Börje Forsberg (the father of black metal legend Quorthon) decided that Edge of Sanity would be best served by giving in to the lure of the popular BOSS HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal worshipping sound that bands like Entombed & Dismember had made Sweden's calling card over the previous couple of years. Personally, I can't say that I've ever favoured that sound over the one popularized by the Americans but I can't deny that it works for Edge of Sanity here, giving them a brighter & more vibrant sound that better highlights the slightly more melodic & expansive arrangements we find on "Unorthodox".

Once again, I feel that Dan Swanö's powerful death growls are probably the best thing about this record as he regularly reminds me of Morbid Angel's Dave Vincent with his tone losing none of its menace despite maintaining clear intelligibility. Where "Nothing But Death Remains" generally traversed some fairly commonly taken creative routes though, "Unorthodox" sees Edge of Sanity starting to take a few risks by expanding their repertoire & even hinting at the progressive edge of the two "Crimson" releases. Does it all work? Well, yeah it does but, by the same account, it rarely finds me reaching for superlatives. There's no doubt that "Unorthodox" is a slightly more consistent record than the debut was with none of the ambitious fourteen tracks failing to offer some level of appeal but I can't say that too many of them really get my blood pumping either. It's only really the one-off attempt at doom/death in excellent closer "When All Is Said" that sees me placing Edge of Sanity into that second tier space with the rest of the album simply coming across as a decent example of the signature Swedish death metal sound more than anything else. The generous 57-minute run time was perhaps a little ambitious for a conventional death metal release too & I think Edge of Sanity might have needed to have taken the progressive component further still if they were to maintain my full attention for that sort of period.

Despite its musical direction moving a little further away from my wheelhouse than that of "Nothing But Death Remains", I'd still suggest that "Unorthodox" has a slight advantage over its elder sibling as its class & consistency see me placing just above the debut in the band's overall pecking order. As scandalous as this might sound, this also sees it sitting above Edge of Sanity's more highly regarded mid-90's albums too which likely has more to do with my struggles with the melodic death metal subgenre than it is anything to do with the quality contained on each release. This does beg the question as to where the Swede's 1993 third album "The Spectral Sorrows" sits in the grand scheme of things & I intend to answer that question in the coming weeks. Until then though, I can't see "Unorthodox" disappointing too many fans of the classic Swedish death metal sound but I'd be surprised to see it topping too many charts all the same.

For fans of Dismember, Entombed & Bloodbath.