Band:	Edge Of Sanity
Album:	Crimson
Style:	Progressive death metal
Release date:	April 02, 1996
Guest review by:	Stalker

01. Crimson
02. Murder. Divided. [Japanese bonus]

I was really surprised to see that this outstanding album didn't have any reviews here. In an effort to make that right, lets start. What we have here is an album that consists of only one, 40 minute long song. For those who are not familiar with Crimson yet, don't be afraid. Songs over 10 minutes long are not so uncommon in metal, but even the most progressive of bands often fall into the trap of making them too dull and not really enjoyable after first few minutes - the story about Crimson Queen is definitely not.

The reason for this is the diversity of musical landscapes in this song. Starting with the sound of heavy distortion in extremely low tuning, you will hear fast death riffs, march-like passages, clean sections, with Dan Swanö's powerful growls and clean voice too, and supported by additional vocal and guitar work from Mikael Åkerfeldt. This masterpiece will surely hold your attention long enough to enjoy this work completely. The music itself cant be easily labelled (although there is no need to do that), everything you will hear is very original. You cant really compare it to some unrelated songs or styles without ripping it apart to at least 20 different sections. Musically, whole spectrum of moods and paces, ranging from aggressive riffs and growls to soothing and "hypnotic" parts is present, yet everything fits in perfectly, there are no "fillers" or unnecessary inserts.

Challenging both musically and lyrically, Crimson not only meets expectations, it exceeds them greatly. If you have a 40 minutes long song, with lyrics that have no chorus or any significant repeating whatsoever, it must be the result of powerful inspiration and skilful song writing. The story takes us to a world in the distant future, Earth where humanity is sentenced to extinction because women only give birth to men. In this time, a female child is born to the King and Queen, and people see that as a sign of salvation, but she later falls under the influence of evil forces and gains magical powers. Supported by the people who expect her to save civilization, she begins ruling the earth. Eventually, she misleads them, forcing them to blind her and put her in a container of crimson fluid.

No need to talk about the performance, if you are familiar with the lineup, the undisputed quality is there, except maybe in sound, which isn't all that great, but not bad at all either. Anyway, if you didn't have the chance to hear this masterpiece so far, and if you are a fan of extreme and progressive music, do it because you wont regret it.