Band:	Atrocity
Album:	Atlantis
Style:	Gothic industrial metal
Release date:	April 26, 2004
Guest review by:	Raiden

01. Reich Of Phenomena
02. Superior Race
03. Gods Of Nations
04. Ichor
05. Enigma
06. Morbid Mind
07. Omen
08. Cold Black Days
09. Atlantean Empire
10. Clash Of The Titans
11. Apocalypse
12. Lost Eden
13. The Sunken Paradise
14. Aeon
15. Ein Volk

Atrocity are a Gothic/Death/Symphonic Metal band from Germany. What's Gothic/Death Metal you ask? Well to me it seems like Black/Death Metal, but toned down to the Gothic Metal level, and the result is Gothic/Death Metal. Atrocity's also contains some Symphonic elements. It should also be noted that Atrocity's frontman Alexander Krull is married to Leaves' Eyes lead singer Liv Kristine Espenæs Krull. Also, half of Atrocity's members are in Leaves Eyes. I've known Atrocity by name for a while, and after a bit heard a couple of tracks of their old stuff, but I've just recently got this album, "Atlantis," their 2004 offering.

Atlantis starts out with what is possibly the band's best song of the album. It has quite a fast beginning with fast drumming and quite a bit of double kick beats. Also the Symphonic background does sound quite flowing and it helps to create a nice atmosphere. Liv Kristine Espenæs Krull guests on this album once again and her vocal input on this song is actually quite nice. At times she sings in harmony with Alexander, and it sounds quite fitting.

After a couple songs you start to get into the rhythm of the album, and unfortunately it gets a little repetitive. The album starts to sound a bit like a routine and you start to wonder if you've heard certain parts before. Thankfully the fourth track "Ichor" seems to break the cycle somewhat, starting with an intro of some sort of different instrument. The clean vocal chorus/harsh vocal verse seems to crop up again however.

The songs that features Liv Krull on backing vocals seem to be some of the best ones. When she's present the whole song seems better for some reason. Also the songs that have her in have a more Symphonic sound, which works well for the album.

There are a few tracks toward the end of Atlantis that are softer sounding. Like just plain Gothic Metal. An example of such a song is Cold Black Days. This song is resonably catchy in parts, but still not that good and it also doesn't really suit this album. Plus it contains a terrible "Linkin Park" sounding keyboard-generated "beat" which spoils what small goodness there is in the song.

Overall I find this album to be "not too bad." It has some quite nice moments of fast/mid-paced Symphonic Death Metal, but the standard isn't really maintained throughout the album. The plain Gothic Metal songs (and the Bal-Sagoth sounding interlude) add some variety on Atlantis, but on the other hand, they don't seem to fit the overall mood of the album. And as I mentioned before songs like Cold Black Days just sound plain bad.

Best tracks: Reich Of Phenomena, Clash Of The Titans, Apocalypse, Engima.