Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Snapcase - Lookinglasself (1993)
The almighty masterpiece by Snapcase, Progression Through Unlearning helped shape up metalcore/hardcore in the 90s, but before then, there was their 1993 debut album Lookinglasself (I didn't know there was an elf character in Alice Through the Looking Glass, lol). At the time, metalcore was at its very origin, pioneered by a few bands like Integrity, Rorschach, and Starkweather. With their debut, Snapcase would pretty much pave the way for the more popular developing bands like Earth Crisis and Converge. Sad to say though that Lookinglasself doesn't have the same glory as those other bands' albums (I ended up dropping a full star in my rating in this recent revisit)...
Well I wouldn't say this is entirely bad. It's more like laying down the blueprints for what they would do in their next album. And when their debut is at its good side, they strike hard. Vocalist Daryl Taberski was originally the bassist while vocals were done by Tiger Balduf and Chris Galas. Once Galas left, Taberski decided to switch to vocals, and he has the aggressive intensity to go with the raging riffing and breakdowns. That has helped with the rhythmic dissonance this album has.
We already have kind of an ambitious start with the 5-minute two-part "Drain Me / Filter". Then "Incarnation" is a mid-tempo march, showing that not everything in that era has to be the technical speed of bands like Atheist and Sadus.
"Deceived" has a sh*t-ton of massive riffing. The title track is the ultimate representation of the band at their early stage. The hardcore riffing is so sludgy and adds to the brooding emotion. Their talent is on full display, until the next few tracks that are the reason for my slight drop in rating... "No Bridge" has raging guitarwork, but it doesn't really bring forward any of its needed substance.
Stumbling the most is "Covered" which foreshadows their stylistic downfall 10 years later. Same thing with "Another's Life" (that doesn't really grammar) which is a bit alt-ish. Luckily, "Fields of Illusion" makes up for those flaws with a true prime example of metalcore in its very early days, and that is no illusion.
Lookinglasself is the kind of album that you can understand its status of importance yet find some parts of it a little painful. It takes the right amount of ambition to shape up the sound they were going for, but the experimentation can be too much at times. Nonetheless, they have all they needed to fulfill their vision in their next album Progression Through Unlearning. So we gotta be thankful for the existence of Lookinglasself and its impact on metalcore/hardcore. Something decent can go a long way....
Favorites: "Drain Me / Filter", "Deceived", "Lookinglasself", "Fields of Illusion"