I'm almost surprised that this came about on Victory. At a time when Victory is putting out one watered down "emo pop" band after another, this CD doesn't fit in at all.

Make no mistake, this is metal. It will be called hardcore of course, but this is basically pure death metal. Now that we've gotten past any misconceptions, let me get down to the actual musical content. The album starts off with a pointless chugging intro called "Prologue". I really have no idea why it was even included, but it's fairly short and you can always start on track two. "Memory" is the real first track as far as I'm concerned. But it too starts off with slow chugging. I was actually starting to get kind of frustrated, until the vocals kicked in around the 50 second mark.

What you get here in the vocal category is the neopolitan ice cream of metal. You get high pitched screams, medium ranged screams, and gutteral low-pitched growls. The funny thing is that you usually hear all three styles one after another, in an almost "look what I can do!" fashion. With the screamed line "I can't believe I let you do this to us.." Memory kicks into a speedy European metal style. Get used to it, because the rest of the album is pretty much based around it.

I absolutely love the sound of the drums on here, they have that snappy quality that reminds me of the drumming on Poison the Well's "Opposite of December". The drumming really holds these songs together, especially on tracks like "The Eternal Gates of Hell". When songs switch from slow to fast, the drumming helps contribute to the overall urgent feel.

The lyrics are some of the most over the top metal lyrics you'll find. Lines like "the gates of hell open for me, as far as my eyes can see" don't really sound out of place on here though. I guess they fit the music rather well, although I'd hope for something a little deeper.

Overall, this is a solid debut for these guys from Chicago. It's nothing groundbreaking. Fans of metal will probably enjoy this, but I doubt it will convert anyone to the genre. I also contend that if this band was from Sweden instead of Chicago, that they'd be loved.