Band:	Casketgarden
Album:	Open The Casket, Enter The Garden
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	2006

01. The First Handful Of Soil
02. Open The Casket
03. Spirit Unseen, Body Unknown
04. Why The Vultures Cry?
05. One More Lie
06. A Grief History
07. Poisonvein 1010011010
08. To Relive My Carnage
09. ...Alone As God
10. Enter The Garden

Ho, I remember well the first album of this band from Hungary. It was "This Corroded Soul Of Mine" a good old album of Gothenburg Death a la At The Gates. I remember it very well because I wrote the review for the release date in 2003. It was a good surprise, a bit unoriginal but the quality was there. Now, the band is back with a new album "Open The Casket, Enter The Garden" and the combo did some little changes in their compositions, we will see which ones in this new review.

In the past, if it was easy to compare Casketgarden to At The Gates, now I should say that they're a bit more like Hatesphere. You're reading well, even if Casketgarden still plays Melodic Death a la Swedish sauce, they're now a bit more into the Hardcore world. Don't expect however a radical turnover, their music still have a lot of melodic riffs and blasting rhythms but the voice of István is a lot more "hardcore" now. Though, it's a bit the same with the songs, now it's not so Gonthenburg and mix, with a lot of ability, the two different music.

Is it a good thing? Well I think so because there are a lot of bands that plays classic Gothenburg Death now and it's probably a good thing to change a bit its musical orientation. But on the other hand "Open The Casket, Enter The Garden" is good but extremely classic and not so original. The songs are more than correct, I enjoy them without any probleme but with a bit of honesty I must say that we aren't anything new in this release. With also only 39 minutes of music, you can understand that we're in front of a good release in the style but "Open The Casket, Enter The Garden" isn't a new standard. It's just good and nothing more?

At least, Casketgarden knows how to react and it's good to see that they changed a bit the musical orientation of their writings but now we have a lot of new bands everyday that play the same music so it's not so surprising in 2006. However don't misunderstand me, this is a solid release in the style, and if you like such music, you won't have to hesitate a lot of time to buy it.