Band:	Unholy
Album:	Rapture
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	1998

01. Into Cold Light
02. Petrified Spirits
03. For The Unknown One
04. Wunderwerck
05. After God
06. Unzeitgeist
07. Wretched
08. Deluge
09. Petrified Spirits [bonus] [live]
10. Covetous Glance [bonus] [live]

If you are an adorer of the 90s doom metal scene there is NO way that you won't remain stunned, speechless and doomed by one of the most unique and personal doom metal acts that were born "into cold light", Unholy. The impressive part of the story is the fact that you can't characterize them as doom/death, funeral doom or whatever. Why? Simply because the elements they incorporate in their sound are so many and complex that won't let you find the ideal description for their music. But this doesn't matter at all because it's the music that matters, not the label.

The amazing part in their sound is that you won't say that the X instrument is more important than the Z one because EVERY single instrument is playing its leading role in the drama of Unholy and all together offer in pure perfection a play condemned to swallow your soul and drown it in the deepest abyss. The variety of sounds is only positive and the band succeeds into creating that death-like, ultra nightmarish, cold and oblivious aesthetic of "Rapture" in the most appropriate way. A flawless, vivid and esoteric atmosphere, this is what Unholy offer with their third full-length release and you are there, waiting to drown in this world where words like melancholy, solitude and pain are meaningless, there's something deeper lying in there waiting for you to cherish and bleed?

The guitar work is perfect, it varies from powerful riffing to twisted solos and from cold guitar chords to guitar sounds enriched with FX that make the atmosphere more complex. Everything concerning the guitars is well-executed, flawless. The rhythm section, utterly imposing or just lurking, contributes to the sound of the band in the most ideal way, whether it lends groove and power to songs or works as another atmosphere-evoking entity. The keyboard work is entrancing and escalates the whole feeling with the cold and lifeless colors it adorns the sound canvas, whether they are calm (=grey and lifeless) or in dismay (=distorted colors of paranoid movement). The vocals are utterly descriptive, whether they are powerful grunts or more howling, emotionally cold singing or recites, pouring themselves to the shadows.

The album begins and ends in the same way, with an instrumental. The opening one is called "Into Cold Light" and it couldn't have a more appropriate title since that deep cold light pours unto you its despondent rays and you can feel it deep inside through the utterly imposing rhythm section and the twisted atmosphere-evoking keyboard melodies and the guitar FX/riffing that float like shadows in the asphyxiating air. The closing theme of "Rapture is "Deluge" and this is what it is, a deluge of grief, imposing and calm at the same time, nightmarish and peaceful, pinning you to the world that the band evoked before your very eyes in such a masterful way. In between lie the tears in the shape of compositions so dreadful, dark, painful and adorned with the deepest emotions. The names of them "Petrified Spirits", "For The Unknown One", "Wunderwerck", "After God", "Unzeitgeist" and "Wretched", awaiting to fill you with a tranquil or intense, but always nightmarish and menacing, atmosphere and emotions.

An album for all the doomed souls with no exception, don't miss it, just drown in it.