I'm finally getting the Edge Of Sanity back catalog in stock here at C-Blast, after being almost impossible to obtain for years without paying insane import prices. The Black Mark titles from this pioneering progressive death metal band are all essential for fans of both Swedish death metal and prog-death, with some albums (Crimson, The Spectral Sorrows, Unorthodox) ranking as some of my own favorite progressive extreme metal albums of all time. This was, of course, the most well-known band from Swedish metal polyglot Dan Swano, formed after his run with Pan-Thy-Monium as a crushing entry in the evolving Swedish death metal underground. After a relatively straightforward 1991 debut, Edge Of Sanity quickly began to experiment with a combination of prog rock, hard rock and gothic influences being infused into the band's monstrous death metal, and in the process produced some of the most adventurous extreme metal to come out of the Swedish underground.

If you've ever yearned to hear a prog-rock obsessed version of The Jester Race-era In Flames, the Crimson albums from Edge Of Sanity are probably the closest you're going to get. One of the best albums to ever combine that Swedish melodic death metal sound with serious prog rock influences, Crimson II was the second installment in an ambitious duology, and would also become the final Edge Of Sanity release with Swano basically recording the album solo, aided by a crew of guest musicians that included members of Mercyful Fate, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, Insision, and Abstrakt Algebra. In addition, the complex lyrical fantasies were entirely written by Clive Nolan, member of British prog rock bands Arena and Pendragon. This single forty-three minute, album-length composition is divided into nine movements, modeled after the kind of sprawling prog rock opuses that Swano had obviously been devouring throughout the 90s. The album begins with swells of classical strings before tearing into the hooky, galloping death metal of "I - The Forbidden Words", where the complex melodic riffs and sweeping synthesizers start coming fast. The band drops some massive death n' roll in here, some of this melodic, anthemic metal rivaling the catchiest In Flames stuff. They weave through chunky, sludgy breakdowns and monstrous dirges splattered with awesome ELP/Yes-style prog synths, those omnipresent electronic elements threaded throughout the metallic heaviness. The band will drop out at times leaving just the sound of lush clean electric guitars and eerie arpeggios, then launch into soaring, spacey leads over lurching mathy grooves. Swano's penchant for moodier rock sounds is also in play, like the part on "III - Passage of Time" where he shifts seamlessly from dark, brooding prog with sung vocals into the crushing ultra-catchy death metal, only to follow that up with a soaring piano melody - its one of my favorite Edge Of Sanity moments, period. The album wraps with the classical strings and billowing black ambience of "Aftermath", closing this in a flourish of dark, forbidding atmosphere.

Like I said, this is one of C-Blast's favorite progressive death metal albums, and is one of Swano's more ambitious projects alongside the first Crimson album and his solo album Moontower. Highly recommended...