Acid Death – Eidolon

This review will be relatively short as I’m not sure why I received this CD for a review eight years after its release?! Nevertheless, here follows a short introduction to the band.

Acid Death is the oldest progressive/death/thrash Greek band with long history behind them. It was founded back in 1989, and after the release of their first two albums, namely 1997 Piece Of Mankind and 2000 Random’s Manifest, they decided to take a longer break, splitting up in 2001. After more than a decade they returned with this, their third full-length, release entitled Eidolon. On their website I read that they’ve released two more albums since the release of Eidolon, so I’ll definitely check them out as well.

Now, let’s look at Eidolon which consists of 10 songs. It starts with two classic Acid Death songs, “Blind Reflection” and “Crossing The Line”. It’s like an implosion to yours ears, kicking-off with some deadly riffs and death metal vocals. Esp. the later mentioned “Crossing The Line” is a song that occupy you from the beginning.

The following tracks are ‘the new Acid Death’, as the following “Towards Hate” is a relatively slow song with some groovy parts in it. “Convent 655321” reminds me of Death, simply amazing! “Odious Maggots” has this amazing death-sounding guitar drone in the background.

“Dying Alone” is the next track, with this unexpected beautiful slow beginning. I like the combination and the flow within this track, switching from the initial slow to more explosive and dynamic parts. The haunting section at the end is very atmospheric. Finally, the closing track is an amazing instrumental “Sole Truth”, not too complex nor overly progressed.

There’s this nice cohesion in the album, and I think it is obvious that the band has worked a lot since their break-up in the beginning of the century as because every instrument (esp. drums!) and the vocals sounds great. The production sounds like something done in the early 90s, with sharp edged guitars, clear bass, at the front vocals and blasting drum beats. It’s clear that they put a lot of attention to the production part.

Frankly, I haven’t heard band’s earlier discography to fully appreciate the material’s worth, however I can say Eidolon is an album that is progressive with the true meaning of the word. Highly recommended for fans of Cynic, Atheist, Sadus, Death and similar scene giants from the 90s.

For additional info on this particular or any of their new releases please visit http://www.aciddeath.net/