Band:	Armageddon
Album:	Crossing The Rubicon (Revisited)
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	October 14, 2016
A review by:	omne metallum

01. 2022
02. Godforsaken
03. The Juggernaut Divine
04. Astral Adventure
05. Funeral In Space
06. Asteroid Dominion
07. Galaxies Away
08. Faithless
09. Children Of The New Sun
10. Into The Sun

Back to the past.

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of re-recordings (or revisiting, as is the case here), especially given in the age of the internet nothing is truly lost anymore, with there only being a handful of records that have a reason to exist beyond their original incarnation. Crossing The Rubicon (Revisited) is one of these few exceptions; while both versions have their merits, taken as an isolated record, this is a strong album.

Armageddon are the side project of (then) Arch Enemy guitarist Christopher Amott, and a band that have lived in that shadow for its duration. It is a shame that the band never grew out of this niche, as they have several strong records to their own name and can stand on their own two feet. While carved from the same melodeath stone, the band were more adventurous in their style, throwing out experimental instrumental tracks like "Funeral In Space" and "Galaxies Away", which give the album an added dimension that enhances the listening experience.

The band avoid the pitfall many side projects fall into, that being merely a means to utilise some ideas that weren't good enough or surplus to requirements for the main project, with the tracks here being solid and underrated. "Into The Sun" features some tight guitar work and is a seriously underrated melodeath track, while the shifting "Astral Adventure" lives up to its name and lays a foundation that allows the project to stand on its own merits.

Crossing The Rubicon (Revisited) also dodges the common issue with re-recordings, that being that they're often poor imitations of their original version. When listening to this album, you can hear attention went into this and that there is purpose to it beyond it being a mere stop-gap release or cash grab. The album's production does lack the gritty 'traditional' sound of 90's melodeath, but thankfully tracks like "The Juggernaut Divine" are strong enough that they aren't reliant on their prior production to be good tracks.

Personally, I prefer Hämäläinen's vocals to Nyrén's; while the latter is far from bad, there is more character to the former, which shines on tracks like "Asteroid Dominion", though it is easy to make a case for either to be the better singer. While Amott is the sole remaining member from the original release, the new-look band do justice to the source material and don't lack in precision as a group.

Where Crossing The Rubicon (Revisited) falls short is that the clean production leaves a lot of empty space in the track; while everything can be heard cleanly, the album could have been so much more powerful and heavy than it is. While "Godforsaken" is heavy, it could have been absolutely crushing and it feels like a missed opportunity that could have added so much more to the experience. As much as the clean tone gives the album, you can't help but feel it holds back from giving you everything you could want.

While you can argue for the original or the new version, one thing that can be agreed upon is that Armageddon are a band not to be slept on. Crossing The Rubicon (Revisited) is a strong album and a rare exception in terms of albums being re-recorded as it has a quality of its own rather than being a faded copy of its original: worth listening to for anyone who wants to dive deeper into melodeath.