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A classic and one of the best - and most influential alternative metal albums of the last millennium. It contains a lot of progressive elements (such as tempo changes, odd time signatures and quirky 4/4 patterns, and genre transendence) without ever being a full-blown progressive album. There are individual tunes, however, that could be categorized as progressive proper, such as "Zombie Eathers" and "The Real Thing". In any case, this is a classic alt metal album fusing metal with funk, rap, hard rock and other genres without being as dull as a lot of nü metal is.

If you like doom metal, you have to acquire this classic. While very obviously inspired by the likes of Candlemass (there's even a silly Candlemass-like narrative voice on one of the tracks), "Into the Depths of Sorrow" is nonetheless original in its own way. Firstly, it contains several heavy riffs that are based on Middle Eastern scales, which has more or less become a trademark of SA's. Secondly, the incorporation of power metal elements (and eastern influences) creates a genre that is not as blues inspired as many first generation doom bands were (still, there are some cool pentatonic riffs on this album). Thirdly, SA's compositions one this album are more complex than was typical of the doom metal at the time. And lastly, there's Rob Lowe's voice - that in itself is worth buying the album for.

Brilliant. Beautiful. Would have been perfect with better production...

An awesome album. Somewhere between old MotW and Kayo Dot, but without harsh vocals... and it can be downloaded for free!!!

A lot of strong power metal tunes on this one, but boy am I glad they got rid of that vocalist, because he's terrible.

Another power metal milestone by Iced Earth.

What a great album this is! The music's straight out epic doom the way it should be. I really like Johan Langquist's vocals on this album (theer's a quality of desperation to his singing that neither Messiah Marcolin nor Rob Lowe possesses).

 I stumbled across this album in the local record store in the discount section. The price was 5 DKR (that's less than one Euro), so I thought "What the hell!".

Was it worth it? Gee, I actually don't know. I guess, stylistically, it's a sort of mixture Grunge, Hardcore and early Nu-Metal. There are a bunch of nice groovy riffs on this album and some cool breakdowns and changes, too, but on the whole this album is quite forgettable and uninspiring and tends to be monotonous (they could have avoided this by adding some guitar melodies and solos). The yelled vocals quickly get annoying and add further monotony - had their vocalist been able to add some variation to his singing, Compression would have sounded less monotonous. As it is now, this album is boring - simply boring.

It's really a shame, because, as mentioned above, there are a lot of cool riffs and a lot of potential, which unfortunately drown in monotony and boring, stipid, crappy vocals. A shame!

Their most depressive work since "Discouraged Ones".

Very, very hard to fault. Amplifier create a mighty wall of sound drowned with lots and lots of guitar riffs.

Definitely sparked my interest in getting more of the DVDs of the series, an excellent concert.

Fans of The Enid will love this!

One of the finest release this year with a great singer, nice arrangements and very good compositions.

Best reason for having this album is that it was produced by Alex Lifeson from Rush.

 Piece of Time is the debut full-length studio album by American technical death metal act Atheist. A classic album in the genre. While Piece of Time holds many great elements it´s not fully on par with its two successors Unquestionable Presence and Elements. It should be considered a seminal album in the technical death metal genre though and songs like the title track and especially I Deny are excellent examples of Atheist at their best.

A novelty for me.

Such an approach like this album can let me feel dearness like a good old memory as well as freshness. Indeed not only the recording condition but also their play on stage itself is not so good, but this unpolished air and their awkwardness can notify me their exquisite attraction. They might play real music that can touch directly our mind, with simple phrases and persistent repetitions. Whatever you feel from what I've said, at first listen to the beginning of the first track Michi No Owari (The end of the road) Part 1 & 2, and you will feel bloodcurdling soundscape with an aggressively loud and low-tone guitar solo and heavily scattered drum sounds. Setsu NOGATA's effortful voices following that can accelerate this threatening atmosphere.　The sounds as if they left their muddy footprints on our mind are mysterious but somehow charming - why? Guess they should be an aggregate of incomplete stuffs - either ensemble or composition - and this incompleteness can let us fall into them pleasantly.

The CD released in 2002 is the reissued live album in 1981 with 9 unreleased tracks added. Our stomach is full enough to listen to the first four tracks from their 'Live', but in their bonus tracks are a sharp-edged space rock song like Kuroi Shisen (Black eyes) and brilliant psychedelia like Improvisation or Saisei (Regeneration). In my humble opinion COCK C'NELL did not have a strong intention or assertion that they should play psychedelic progressive rock or space rock...we can feel their psychedelia naturally, though.

Almost 15 years waiting for this album... and it was well worth the wait!

A great album which, with its lack of growls and distorted guitars, is also a very brave album from Opeth. Rather than blending death metal and progressive rock, it seems that on this album, Åkerfeldt is aiming for a blend of melancholic 90s-style alternative rock with progressive rock, and it works quite well.

Honestly! I cannot help keeping my eyes and mouth open, touching this album by my ears.

LOVE LIVE LIFE, a Japanese psychedelic rock project, was a hotchpotch ensemble of talented rock musicians. Indeed you can imagine where this project should go as soon as you find the members, but, as I'm sure it's much important, this terribly terrific album could be produced not by LOVE LIVE LIFE, but by LOVE LIVE LIFE + ONE. Namely, Akira FUSE the vocalist could activate this project more and more I wanna say. Basically Akira is one of famous pop singers in Japan - he can remind almost all of Japanese a beautiful & plaintive ballad "Cyclamen No Kaori (Flavour of a cyclamen)" in 1975 - and currently for us Japanese it's beyond all imagination he could shout in such a psychedelic project. As if Percy Faith play rock (sorry).

Joking aside, without any suspicion he was the lead-off ... -> show full review

 Elements is the third full-length studio album by American jazz/ fusion death metal act Atheist. A groundbreaking mix of fusion/ jazz, latin musical elements and death metal. Elements takes the the fusion elements that Atheist introduced on Unquestionable Presence and and builds even further on their already unique style. A seminal album in the genre and a true masterpiece IMO. The musicianship is outstanding in addition to some really innovative compositions.