Review by Ben for Edge of Sanity - Purgatory Afterglow (1994)

Another flawed yet entertaining Edge of Sanity album filled with variety and melody.

I find Edge of Sanity albums to be a little difficult at times. I've recently reviewed Unorthodox and The Spectral Sorrows and found in both cases albums that have some wonderful music, but that also contain sections that simply make me cringe. I guess it comes down to the fact that Dan Swano is simply not willing to lay down 10 tracks of one-dimensional melodic death metal. His music crosses genres often and he lets his creative juices run no matter where the result takes these albums. Purgatory Afterglow is without a doubt a better album than its predecessors, but I still can't give it more than 4 stars due to some little annoyances.

Let's look at the song Silent for example. Starts off nice enough with a little melody before kicking in with some fast drumming and a great riff. Around the minute mark, acoustic guitars take over for just a few seconds before another awesome riff takes off and Dan's growls launch over the top. The chorus is simple but effective and so far, I'm totally into this track! Then suddenly there's this simply horrible (and I mean frickin’ disgusting) cheesy little melody that kicks in around the halfway point. It's gone within 30 seconds but it all but destroys what is otherwise an awesome track. This may seem like a petty complaint, but I continually find this happening throughout the album and it leaves me contemplating how awesome this album could have been with just a little bit of restraint.

It should be obvious that I find Purgatory Afterglow to be a little frustrating at times, but there's still enough great music for me to recommend it to anyone into the melodic side of death metal. Twilight, Of Darksome Origin, Elegy and Velvet Dreams are all damn enjoyable and almost all the other tracks (Song of Sirens and Black Tears excluded) have great melodies and riffs at some point. I do find it difficult to understand how anyone can rate this album above the amazing follow-up Crimson, but then that's the beauty of opinion.