This is Death's masterwork. What can really be said about this album, its very techincal, its quite heavy, and half of the songs even have hooks, the lyrics are well written as well and should provoke some amount of thought if nothing else. What's even better about this album, is every instrument can be clearly heard, and the intricacy's discovered thanks to the phenomenal production job by Jim Morris. Gene Hoglan's drumming is even more intense than on Individual Thought Patterns, the bass drum hits with force and not even the slightest cymbal fill goes unoticed, powerful, intricate progressive drumming what more can be said? Time signature and tempo changes abound thoughout the album, the vocals are a yell/growl, quite forceful sounding. The guitar sound is thick yet melodic and heavy, the distortion is nice and edgey the tones are fairly dark overall, its really a great balance.

There's not a bad song on this album, each one kicks ass for its own reasons, and mean guitar riffs and great solos appear in all the songs. I'll just go over some of my favorites. "Zero Tolerance" has some cool grooves in it. "Empty Words" starts slow and suddenly shifts into high gear, but is one of the catchier songs (as catchy as death metal gets anyhow), the chorus is quite powerful. "Sacred Serentiy" is another excellent song, this is even more addictive than the previous song. The guitar part in the chorus is bad ass. "1,000 Eyes" has some brilliantly penned lyrics dealing with all of the camera's in society 'Privacy and Intimacy, as we know it will be a memory' shoud give you some idea. I shouldn't have to mention how much this rocks. "Crystal Mountain" is my favorite Death song, is a death metal power ballad of sorts, as the guitar parts would indicate in the verses, but this is Holgan in top form at the kit, driving the song along at 2x as it seems. The guitar lines are more lead like and are nicely backed by intense drum fills. As it fades out a spanish acoustic solo comes in over the electric leads, very cool! Very addictive song. "Perenial Quest" is hard to get into, but the ending is a simply beautiful acoustic part for the very end, its excellent. This CD is a work of art and everyone should own it, even if you don't like growling give it a shot.

Rating: 9,8