Band:	Disillusion
Album:	Back To Times Of Splendor
Style:	Extreme progressive metal
Release date:	April 21, 2004
A review by:	Undercraft

01. ...And The Mirror Cracked
02. Fall
03. Alone I Stand In Fires
04. Back To Times Of Splendor
05. A Day By The Lake
06. The Sleep Of Restless Hours

I'm always ranting about when the next thing in Metal is gonna come right?, well finally and after months of waiting I have found a new contestant to my annual "Best new/unknown/underrated act of the year", the entry? Disillusion, the label? Metal Blade Records, the result? An exquisite piece of work!

Let's head back a little first shall we? Disillusion is a relatively new band, formed in 2001, they released a 4-track Demo and a Mcd before grabbing a record deal, and releasing this, their debut album "Back To Times Of Splendor".

This album is just great, all of it, the variety and mix of different elements makes of this a real pleasure to the ears, take note that the album contains only 6 songs, but lasts almost an hour, so be warned because the songs are lengthy, but don't worry, no song becomes boring at any point, the great mixture of Progressive Metal with Death and Trash Metal that Disillusion offer to us, brings really something new to the scene.

The opener song "And The Mirror Cracked" shows us a first glimpse of what's Disillusion capable of, the song have great fast-paced aggressive moments, coupled with great Death Metal vocals, then countered by excellent clear vocals, and more accessible modern parts (modern, not commercial, don't be mistaken), all through the 8 minutes of the opener you can listen tempo breaks, creative songwriting and a great acoustic part in the middle of the song, when I listened this track, I knew I was in love with this band.

But things don't end there, the second song, "Fall" opens with a groovy, almost Rock n' Roll riff, the clean vocals take hold of this song, and when the tempo breaks to give entrance to the chorus section I know that I'm in front of another winner here.
The real highlight of the album is the awesome title song, "Back To Times Of Splendor" is a 14 minute masterpiece, this song features even a violin, that incredibly, fits perfect with the music, the song is pure intensity, and let me tell you that keeping that intensity for 14 minutes is really hard.

I could go and describe each minute of every song, but I'll let the music do the talking, my advice, get this album immediately, bands like Disillusion come once in a while only, and for all of you with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), don't worry about the lengthiness of the songs, they won't drag you down to the land of no thoughts, they'll keep you interested at all times.

Special mention to the excellent production, because is really crisp and you can hear each instrument in place, the cover art is beautiful, sadly I can't say the same for the inside booklet which is a little plain for my tastes.
Anyway, for a great piece of creativeness I strongly recommend this album, one of the best surprises of the year so far, and a sure candidate for my top ten of the year.