Edge of Sanity - The Spectral Sorrows (1993)^{Release ID: 615}

After enjoying Edge of Sanity's previous release Unorthodox quite a bit, I was chomping at the bit to give The Spectral Sorrows a listen. While it does indeed evolve the band's sound towards the brilliant high of 1996's Crimson album, its progression from that earlier release probably isn't as far as I'd expected. The melody is definitely cranked up a notch and the production is given a massive boost, but otherwise the underlying sound is pretty similar. The down-tuned, Stockholm grown, yet melodic riffs combined with Swano's fantastic death growl and splashes of creativity is what Edge of Sanity are all about and this album delivers as expected.

Strangely enough though, and seemingly against the average fan, I think I like Unorthodox a bit more. The Spectral Sorrows is a good album that lacks any classic tracks, whereas Unorthodox contained a few rippers like Enigma and When All is Said. The Spectral Sorrows is also a little bit more experimental, which while certainly not being a bad thing in general, doesn't always work in this case. Blood of My Enemies has a very different sound that fits much better on a Bathory (Viking metal period) release and just seems out of place smack bang in the middle of this album. Sacrificed fares a little better with its gothic rock tone that somehow manages to be quite entertaining.

But when the band knuckle down and do what they do best, The Spectral Sorrows shines well enough to be a worthy listen for any fan of their later work. There are 13 tracks (including a very atmospheric intro and outro), so even though a few of them don't sit terribly well with me, there is plenty on offer here. Highlights for me are Darkday, Lost and On the Other Side.

After recently completing revisits to the first two early 90’s albums from Swedish death metallers Edge of Sanity, I decided that it’d be a good idea to give those reviews a little more perspective by filling in my obvious gap in the band’s early story with a reinvestigation of 1993’s “The Spectral Sorrows” third album, a record that represented a significant stepping stone for the band in their journey towards top tier notoriety. I have to admit that I’ve never found myself sitting amongst the bigger fans of these Swedes but have always had time for most of their releases & I found further evidence of that in my reassessments of 1991’s “Nothing But Dead Remains” & 1992’s “Unorthodox”, even going so far as to claim that the former is an underrated release that I actually enjoy more than Edge of Sanity’s more unanimously praised mid-90’s releases. I believe I picked up “The Spectral Sorrows” from one of my local Aussie tape traders & former Elysium band mates who held them up as being his absolute favourite band at the time but I don’t recall myself returning to it since the middle of that decade so it’s time to see where it sits in the Edge of Sanity back catalogue.

The one thing that's clear from the outset is that Edge of Sanity benefitted from their change in studio for the recording of their third album. As with their first two full-lengths, they’d engaged Börje Forsberg (the father of Bathory mastermind Quorthon) to produce the record but this time the outcome was fuller & more vibrant which gave Edge of Sanity a more professional edge & the opportunity to step up in class. The fairly basic musicianship that could be found on the first two records is still on display but it’s been given a shinier coat of paint that makes it a touch more palatable, even if the lead guitar work can seem a little simplistic at times. Bassist Anders Lindberg had been unavailable for the sessions due to military service which left guitarist Andreas Axelsson to handle his parts although this isn’t a significant factor in the grand scheme of things with the classic Swedish guitar crunch & Dan Swanö’s imposing death growl once again being the main drivers in the Edge of Sanity sound.

The most interesting difference from the first two Edge of Sanity albums is the added melody on display on “The Spectral Sorrows”. I don’ think it’s enough to be calling it a melodic death metal record like many people seem to as there’s really only a few songs that go the whole way but it’s evident on a large portion of the album nonetheless. It’s perhaps not all that surprising that my enthusiasm for Edge of Sanity’s third album is curtailed a little more than it is with other fans as I’ve never been the biggest fan of the melodeath subgenre. There are other differences here too though. Where “Unorthodox” saw Edge of Sanity starting to experiment more with their sound, “The Spectral Sorrows” sees them taking a few of unexpected cracks at some widely disparate genres & this can be a little jarring at times. The cover version of Manowar’s “Blood of My Enemies” was a strange selection to begin with but doing it with clean vocals seems like a poor option as Swanö was hardly going to be able to compete with the great Eric Adams from a vocal perspective & the track subsequently falls fairly flat. The inclusion of a gothic rock track in “Sacrificed” fairs better with the deeper clean vocals feeling more than appropriate but it does feel a little out of place on a death metal album nonetheless. The neoclassical darkwave closer “A Serenade For The Dead” is probably the best of the more experimental material & was an enjoyable way to close out the album. Of the more traditional material, there’s a fair bit to like about the majority of it but things rarely touch upon the more elite levels that we know that death metal can achieve. The short opening title track is a stellar way to build tension & crunch into the first proper song while the creative “Lost” is probably my pick of the more traditional inclusions. These high points are offset by a couple of obvious fillers in the highly melodic “The Masque” & the uneventful “On The Other Side”, both of which I really struggle with. There simply aren’t enough genuine highlights to cover material like this so, much like Edge of Sanity’s first two records, I find myself ending up in middle ground with this album. The wins clearly outweigh the losses but those wins are rarely emphatic victories & this fact alone sees my scoring being limited in how high it has the potential to go.

Yes, there’s no doubt that “The Spectral Sorrows” is another generally enjoyable Edge of Sanity record but it’s lack of focus & consistency has left me feeling like I want to place it behind the Swede’s first two records in their overall pecking order. I have no doubt that the added melody has played into that a little but I don’t think that’s the sole factor here as the best moments on “The Spectral Sorrows” often see the band failing to fully capitalize (see the outstanding half-time intro section to “Waiting to Die” which is more or less nullified by the lightweight period that follows it). It’s pretty clear that Edge of Sanity are never gonna be a favourite of mine at this point, particularly as I enjoyed their next couple of classics even less than I did this one, but I feel that I can recognise their appeal in all of this. I just can’t quite put myself into the same head space as the rest of the death metal community seem to be able to when describing them & “The Spectral Sorrows” is a pretty clear example of that.

For fans of Hypocrisy, Intestine Baalism & Godgory.