You could make a "Is there Dan Swanö?" drinking game. Set up a playlist of 90s to 2000s Swedish proggy, death, doom and gothic metal bands. Play a song. Check the credits for Dan Swanö. You'll get drunk pretty fast.
Monsieur Dan Swano, the mastermind behind Edge of Sanity, is a Death Metal legend. Besides being a multi-instrumentalist he is the producer of this album and many other swedish metal gems. He started as a prog and pop musician and then he moved to metal, this is why he writes so many catchy and melodic riffs. He's a complete musician. Great reaction.
Yeah, Dan Swanö is amazing and he was long overdue in your channel. He's a very integral part to understanding the sort of recolution metal underwent in the 90s. He is an immensely talented multinstrumentalist, able to growl, sing, play guitars, keyboards and drums pretty proficiently, and was involved in about 20-25 albums just in the 1990 to 2000 period, ranging from death metal, to black metal, to prog, to hard rock, to prog, and to goth rock, even. Aside from the music he made, there's also the music he helped discover, such as Dissection and Opeth (Michael Akerfeldt provides the more shrieking black metal vocals on this, btw. And Swano played in the Bloodbath song you listened to this week). Out of his immense discography, you'll probably like Moontowers the most, I'd say, it's very tuneful death metal spiced with some very trippy 70s keyboards. And also Pan Thy Monium, which were... weeeeeird. Especially for their time. But it's also fitting for this week's theme. Edge of Sanity were among the first swedish death metal bands, after all.
@@FarazOloumi I didn't forget them and I mentioned them. Might have aged a bit, but they're still interesting to react because if they sound strange now, 30 years ago they were absolutely visionary.
@18:30 No the crossfade is definitely not on the recording, or definitely not on the CD.. But it could be something that the streaming service has done, or even worse, something the label or publisher has done to the recording. It's worth noting that on the CD, it's a single track. It's possible that when the album was chopped up for digital streaming, whoever did it didn't understand the assignment.
This is basically it. Either the label, or Swano himself (doubtful) did some editing for the digital release, which also happens to be about 1:30 shorter than the full song.
Yeah, it's quite unfortunate that the stream version is hobbled by these weird split edits because it's probably the way many if not most potential new fans will hear the track.
Yeah, that's the thing about the digital version that makes it inferior the CD version. Some things were taken out that didn't make any sense, and actually breaks immersion. Crimson is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it angered me so much when I finally saw it was on streaming platforms, only to be treated with this. Hell, the CD version only had one track, so maybe in somebody's infinite wisdom to chop it up for streaming services, they thought this would work well. It did that.
Brian finally reacting to Crimson!? Let's! F**king! Go! Seriously, though. You can hear almost everything great about prog metal, and a great example of how you can build a full album from four basic riffs without making it tiring, and show a masterclass in storytelling and pacing. I live for these 30+ minute reactions. I saw the full Devil Doll reaction (and I'm sure he didn't get half of the references to The Prisoner) and just the thumbnail tells me, Crimson is going to "Instant Classic" for him
I always find Edge of Sanity (or Dan Swano) doesn't get recognized as being on the forefront of the progressive metal style that Opeth made popular. I believe it's the song "Enigma" on the 1992 album that featured Dan singing in both harsh growls and clean vocals which may have been the first time that was really done in metal to that extent. Swano has been in so many projects ranging from death metal, progressive metal/rock, goth rock, and even Powermetal. Check out a Steel which is fun 3 song project with Swano and Akerfeldt where Swano sings in a ridiculous falsetto which is great but also hilarious. Mikael Akerfeldt's featured vocal sections are at 7:15 , 22:42 and a couple other parts.
Yeah, being a long time Opeth fan and hearing this for the first time, I'd already state that Swanö was way ahead of Opeth at this time as well. /Embarrassed, ignorant Swede 🫣
Indeed. Edge of Sanity gets painfully little recognition. But they paved the way for so much that came after. Enigma is still one of the best death metal tracks ever made.
Originally Crimson was one 40 minute long song. The CD I bought way back when had one song: Crimson 40 minutes. The label made him break it up into 8 parts. Crimson II. Has like 30 some songs ranging from 40 seconds or so to one minute 40 some seconds. Crimson tells a unified story if you read the lyrics. Its supposed to be 1 song.
It's about time you've done this masterpiece! Great analysis, as always. Some things to note regarding continuity: on the original album it is one seamless 40 min track, there are no individual songs or movements marked or labeled in any way in the liner notes. I believe they did this splitting when mp3s and music streaming took over. The same thing was done to Insomnium's "Winter's Gate" song/album. Do yourself a favor and lister to the proper version to avoid those distracting breaks and also hear the last 5 seconds of the song which are ethereal and help release the tension (they are cut off on the version you listened to). Coincidentally, "Crimson II" (the sequel to this album released 7 years later) was intentionally put into movements as individual tracks, though it was still composed as one long song. Obviously, you need to analyze Crimson II, Winter's Gate and Green Carnation's "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" now!
This. Also add first two Unanimated, ATG and Eucharist albums, Autumn Leaves' albums, Stormkeep, Inanna, Intestine Baalism and Garden of Shadows and so much more.
Legendary album, definitely a milestone in prog death genre. But now you are obliged to react Crimson II, which is even more prog with a clean production. Also has nods to the previous Crimson, since it is the continuation of the story. There are multiple instances of the same riffs with variationa being used.
Wow! I've really been missing out on them! ... I can't blame it on not being aware of Dan Swanö - THE man behind this band (that apparently has been ending up as his one man project). I do know that Dan Swanö is something of a phenomenon in Swedish heavy prog and was also one of the founding members of Bloodbath (to get some straight forward death metal outlet together with others who did more intricate stuff in their main bands, like e.g. Mikael Åkerfeldt whom you mentioned - although he wasn't the singer at the "Eaten album" while Dan Swanö was still in the band) I also know that Dan is extremely talented and plays virtually all instruments in a metal setting (and have been changing duties in his bands) Great reaction and analysis again. I was glad to get to discover and enjoy this alongside you!
Gothic rock was a massive influence on Dan Swanö, the songwriter/vocalist/guitarist/producer here. The song 'Sacrificed' featured on a previous album of theirs is basically a Sisters of Mercy tribute. That's probably where the gothic style deep vocals come from.
I'm like a kid in a candy shop watching this, EOS is one of my favorite bands of all time and to see someone analyze and appreciate them on this level is an absolute treat. Thanks man, I enjoyed the hell out of this
One of my favorite death metal albums! I love how it stays true to ita death metal roots, but goes all kinds of places and is very ambitious. I mean the guitar work alone is some of the best in extreme metal for sure
its a phenomenal piece of music but like genius indicated normally its not fragmented into parts its a single continuous one track album, that means that some of the part transitions in your version have fade in/outs when there shouldn't be any or a sharper stop than the actual cd version, still most of it is intact so its not a huge deal just would probably alleviate some of your criticisms, also wiki of this album has a pretty good summary of the narrative i think i did recommend it a long time ago but understanding that a 40 min album is a commitment, but it finally happened, glad you liked it, there is also crimson II, another single track behemoth of an album, if this one is a 10, the second is easily a 9, slightly weaker but still another masterpiece and also continues the story
While talking about crazy fun metal. There is a black metal album, very comparable to this one (Dan Swano was one of the two main contributors for it also). It called Diabolical Masquerade - Death's Design
Oh I am very surprised that you react to this. He, Dan Swanö, has an awesome solo album called Moontower and I hope you will pick up this one somewhen in the future.
Hell yeah! More people need to hear about EoS! I'm more a fan of the second Crimson, but this album is just so clever and inventive. Thx for the reaction.
You need Crimson II, it's good!! Btw, when you are doing black metal week? I think that I could drop some good stuff on occasion for further musical exploration ;)
I think we've done 3 BM weeks, which is quite a bit more than any other genre. It might take some time before we revisit it and I'd wager that when we do it'll be something outside the frame of standard Black Metal.
@@CriticalReactions Thanks for reply, good to know! That's quite a bit, to be honest, I will be following next announcements in that case. Bm has a lot to offer, apart from classic and orthodox stuff(sounds contradictory), that's when things get more interesting for objective observer. It's also much easier to get into it, when you are doing a whole album, since it is important to dive into this sound and concept with head. Separate songs mostly feel bit abrupt.
Yes! Crimson and Crimson II are top notch. Dan Swano as others have said is probably the biggest towering titan of Swedish metal. This is one album you'll find in every death metal fan in my age group. Has a very movie soundtrack/stage musical feel with the over-arching structure. It's different songs with the same spinal cord and recurring motifs. Like the same car driving down a few different highways with but always coming back to the same garage. Diabolical Masquerade is another band that taps into this pretty hard.
Diabolical Masquerade is basically Anders Nyström's solo project, and Dan Swanö produced all of his albums as well as playing drums and keyboards on some of them. This sound is really the brainchild of a couple of childhood friends from Stockholm. Anders, Dan, Mikael from Opeth, and Jonas, who is a bandmate of Anders in Katatonia, were all childhood friends. They also formed Bloodbath together. Just an enormously talented group of musicians.
Regarding the story: The child is not a boy, it's the princess. Women giving birth to only boys means humanity can breed again, but not really because only men are being born (civil war foreshadowing). The dialogue happens between the princess (queen regnant now) and her master (we don't know who he is), and he tells her to wipe out the humanity. Not a happy ending BTW "They had found a new leader to worship. / A king with her clear-blue eyes."
I always listen to the entire album gapless. Truly astonishing 40 minute story they tell. It was meant as a one piece I believe. I get no dips, fades pauses or skips in gapless. Never seen them live but wiuld be crazy to play the whole album live like that lol.
You should try Pan-Thy-Monium 'Dawn of dreams'. It was the band Dan Swano (Edge of Sanity) played with his brother and it was unlike anything else in this genre.
An addition to my previous comment, in an interview Dan Swanö described this album as being an "Opeth rip-off" that was inspired by Orchid, Opeth's debut album which Dan produced.
Both do have nice black metal vibes, among the melodic and proggy Death Metal. But I do have to say that Crimson is much more riff based compared to Orchid.
If you’re interested in Dan Swano’s even more experimental side, check out Pan.thy.Monium, which has everything from bluesy jams to groovy death metal with skronky saxophone solos and wacky soundscapes
Nice video, Crimson is one of my favorite melodeath albums but there's definitely some stuff in there (especially toward the end) that could've used a little more time in the oven. Regarding melody in death metal, if you haven't checked out Anata I would highly recommend anything from The Conductor's Departure. Melodic tech death with a heavy emphasis on the "melodic" part. Despite having more of the consistent heaviness that you'd expect from death and some of the more frenetic, complex riffing of tech, it has beautiful melodies with a very unique counterpoint with the guitars. It's a sound that's truly their own, and as much as tech death has had a renaissance of sorts over the past decade nobody has really tried to imitate it.
The original album has just one track, it's not hacked up like this. One coherent song. I really dislike how they cut it up for streaming media. So unnecessary. Ruins the experience so much if you ask me, especially with those unnecessary fades added to it. Regarding Goth vibes, Dan really liked to mix in some goth influences into his soundscapes. There are a few EoS tunes that should be considered pure goth rock or goth metal, like Sacrificed and Black Tears, and the whole first album of his Nightingale project is definitely 100% gothic, intentionally. Too long since I went into the lyrics of the song, but yes, it's definitely one of those songs you need to read the lyrics with the song to make sense of it. If you ever do another EoS reaction in the far future, do something from the Purgatory Afterglow album, such as Twilight, Blood-Colored or Elegy. Recommend it.
EoS riffs and melodies are just pure f'n gold. edt. regarding the gothic metal vibes... check out the song "Black Tears". Soo tasty '80 goth rock vibe. pt4, is so reminiscent of old Amorphis, I mean like Karelian Isthmus and Tales.
dude, you are literally reviewing the soundtrack of my teen years, before you start, i kow you will be impressed.. thius is such a jewel of an album...
Legendary DM album. Opeth get all the credit for mixing extreme metal and prog, but this album was a watershed (npi) for that sub-genre. It made Dan Swano a household name among metal fans and he's been a prolific force in metal ever since. It's awesome stuff with tremendous replay value. This reaction reminds me it's been a while since I heard it myself!
Whoa, I didn't expect this one! Crimson is for sure one of the greatest albums out there, though personally I find Crimson II more palatable. Chances are you'll like that one just as much as this one, or even better. The song I've been recommending, The Kaleidoscopic God by Scar Symmetry, sound overall quite similar to the sound of Edge of Sanity, but I think that song has better written transitions.
I think some people already mentioend it, but on the 1 track CD back in the 90ies there were no fades of course (being one track). Because it is that famous "40 minute one song" release. I think some technicalities etc after that has had to chop up the song into several parts at some points.
There's stuff missing between part 7 and part 8. Part 7 ends at 31:52 and part 8 begins at 32:40 (both in the original track). Weird that they'd not only chop the track up (with the weird crossfades), but also remove material. The original track is exactly 40:00 long FWIW, so that's probably not the only thing missing. Also, there is actually some silence in the part that was removed there.
Yeah. The brick wall transition. A classic death metal maneuver. Real break your neck shit. Opeth has done it. So has cradle of filth. I wait for these parts. When you can see the brick wall it builds anticipation. Anyway, it's kinda like how punk has that pause thing where everyone jumps and does a split or something (though obituary did make use of that a bunch on the end complete). It is...endemic? Innate? Characteristic of? Something or somesuch. Well, iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii love it.
Comparing it to the punk moment is interesting. At first I thought -- no way, those are totally different. But I think it's because if I'm listening to just audio then those moments are abrupt because I'm not seeing the jump they'd do live (or in the music video) and I don't associate them with the jumping. But live it's a sonic gap that's filled in visually and works -- so I never think about it. But you're absolutely right about them being a similar musical device.
I should add 2 more single-track albums with motif usage through them that you MUST checkout! Well, one actually has 64-tracks but should be treated as 1, and guess who's involved with it, Dan Swanö; Death's Design by Diabolical Masquerade - A one man piece band and the album is the OST to a never-release Swedish horror movie! The second is Light of Day, Day of Darkness by Green Carnation; a 1-track 1hr album about the experience of a dad losing their kid to cancer and going through the emotions, which actually happened to one of the band members.Oh and a third bonus nominee for cross-album use of motif! Nightingale's first 4 albums (The Breathing Shadow, The Closing Chronicles, I, and Alive Again), which of course are by Dan Swanö.
As for the track, as a single listen, it can kinda drag, but it's still a great example of the penchant of metal bands during this moment for just doing whatever they put their minds into. But even if at times the creativity does not quite match the execution, there's an earnestness in the willingness to move into what were at the time completely uncharted waters that to my ears hasn't been fully matched since. ANd it's that sheer enthusiasm, almost naivety that makes it pretty timeless. Also, the mesh of influences, especially drumming wise comes from the fact that these are the guys writing the blueprint. They didn't so much take influence from death metal as they created the blueprint for death metal. ANd especially the swedish death metal scene of the 90s was fairly punk inspired. Funny then, that things come full circle and so much of the harsher crust punk of today literally steals old swedish death metal's guitar sound.
Them being at the forefront of the sound and having not much, if anything, to base it on is great context. I knew it sounded a bit rough but couldn't place why.
Dan Swanö, bit off on lyrical tale, but close. You are right about reading lyrics with music, definitely coherent theme... battles during faster parts, mourning in slow parts... Also, not a happy ending... "the one with the clear blue eyes", a lyrical throwback, showing the story as possibly being part of a pattern. There is also Crimson II, but I don't know it as well
The fading is the streaming service’s doing unfortunately. The album is just one track. And yeah, the goth metal vocals are pretty goofy on this one lol.
Dan Swano (the guy behind this band) was not only in Bloodbath for their fist 2 albums, but he played 4 different instruments for them and did backing vocals lol. And produced the albums... and did the audio mixing for them. Worth noting that Swano has done audio engineering and mixing and even produced a bunch of Opeth albums. He's responsible for guiding a lot of bands into their final form. I guess a moderately decent comparison is he's like the Kanye West of Scandy metal.
@@DaronMGL Haha it was very reluctant. Just a combination of being a) respected as a musician (I disagree about Kanye but lots of people don't) with a lot of output, and also being an extremely prolific producer on top of that, with audio engineer credibility. If Rick Rubin played music or if Butch Vig was more celebrated, I probably would've used them as comparisons lol. Much more musically related.
Could do a whole series of reviews focusing on Swanö. Check his wiki, has a list of projects and his involvement, it's a big list, AND it's not even complete. IMO, he deserves credit for the rise of Swedish Melodeath. Another fun fact, Akerfeld (Opeth) does guest vocals on this track.
Great track, and a monster one to do a commentary to. I'll say you nailed it pretty good. They definitely butchered this single track with the parts though. The ending was missing and that slow droning vocal part fades in from silence, rather than abruptly appearing like it did. I think your thumbnail is a totally different band though. Cheers for the doing this song to the Great Edge of Sanity
This album is actually supposed to be one 40 minute song. I have it on CD and it does not have any of the fade in/out crap. That actually got added as a DRM measure and I fucking hate it
Uggggh. I'm glad I finally have an answer as to why this version has those fades but I'm more upset to find out it's some garbage drm thing. As usually, DRM makes the product worse for the person who legally engages with the product. 😒
I find it funny how during the CD period we could spit out songs the length of the width of the medium and actually some bands did. Now we can make songs even longer but very few even dare to make a 15 minute song.
I wish I could take credit for this lining up so well but it was just the cosmic fates. It was supposed to be in the first week back from break but I was swamped and getting behind schedule fast so I postponed it to this week. Honestly with "Edge of Sanity" and 40 minutes I thought I was in store for proggy traditional metal, not death 😅
In a sense, it has already been done. When I presented this song to one of my best friends, he said the lyrics were an almost carbon copy of the plot of "Children of Men". Until I told him that movie was from 2006, the song was from 1996.
I did some looking into it and it seems like that's just how it is on Spotify. I finished recording tomorrow's album review and the transitions on that album were perfect so it wasn't something on my end. Shame that this is how some people will end up experiencing this song/album.
I certainly love this album, but Crimson II is objectively much better. Nobody agrees, but that's just because they're ignoring the superior songwriting, riffs, diversity of passages, cohesion, production, and pretty much everything about it.
You could make a "Is there Dan Swanö?" drinking game. Set up a playlist of 90s to 2000s Swedish proggy, death, doom and gothic metal bands. Play a song. Check the credits for Dan Swanö. You'll get drunk pretty fast.
😆💯
You can add "Scandinavian Punk" to that list
Oh, my God. It's happening.
Monsieur Dan Swano, the mastermind behind Edge of Sanity, is a Death Metal legend. Besides being a multi-instrumentalist he is the producer of this album and many other swedish metal gems. He started as a prog and pop musician and then he moved to metal, this is why he writes so many catchy and melodic riffs. He's a complete musician. Great reaction.
7:26 that Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth growling btw😉
Yeah, Dan Swanö is amazing and he was long overdue in your channel. He's a very integral part to understanding the sort of recolution metal underwent in the 90s. He is an immensely talented multinstrumentalist, able to growl, sing, play guitars, keyboards and drums pretty proficiently, and was involved in about 20-25 albums just in the 1990 to 2000 period, ranging from death metal, to black metal, to prog, to hard rock, to prog, and to goth rock, even. Aside from the music he made, there's also the music he helped discover, such as Dissection and Opeth (Michael Akerfeldt provides the more shrieking black metal vocals on this, btw. And Swano played in the Bloodbath song you listened to this week).
Out of his immense discography, you'll probably like Moontowers the most, I'd say, it's very tuneful death metal spiced with some very trippy 70s keyboards. And also Pan Thy Monium, which were... weeeeeird. Especially for their time. But it's also fitting for this week's theme. Edge of Sanity were among the first swedish death metal bands, after all.
Don't forgot avant-garde (Pan.Thy.Monium)! 🤘
@@FarazOloumi I didn't forget them and I mentioned them. Might have aged a bit, but they're still interesting to react because if they sound strange now, 30 years ago they were absolutely visionary.
@18:30 No the crossfade is definitely not on the recording, or definitely not on the CD.. But it could be something that the streaming service has done, or even worse, something the label or publisher has done to the recording. It's worth noting that on the CD, it's a single track. It's possible that when the album was chopped up for digital streaming, whoever did it didn't understand the assignment.
This is basically it. Either the label, or Swano himself (doubtful) did some editing for the digital release, which also happens to be about 1:30 shorter than the full song.
Yeah, it's quite unfortunate that the stream version is hobbled by these weird split edits because it's probably the way many if not most potential new fans will hear the track.
Yeah, that's the thing about the digital version that makes it inferior the CD version. Some things were taken out that didn't make any sense, and actually breaks immersion. Crimson is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it angered me so much when I finally saw it was on streaming platforms, only to be treated with this. Hell, the CD version only had one track, so maybe in somebody's infinite wisdom to chop it up for streaming services, they thought this would work well. It did that.
@@SixxAxxiS I'm glad I have the CD!
Brian finally reacting to Crimson!? Let's! F**king! Go!
Seriously, though. You can hear almost everything great about prog metal, and a great example of how you can build a full album from four basic riffs without making it tiring, and show a masterclass in storytelling and pacing. I live for these 30+ minute reactions. I saw the full Devil Doll reaction (and I'm sure he didn't get half of the references to The Prisoner) and just the thumbnail tells me, Crimson is going to "Instant Classic" for him
I always find Edge of Sanity (or Dan Swano) doesn't get recognized as being on the forefront of the progressive metal style that Opeth made popular. I believe it's the song "Enigma" on the 1992 album that featured Dan singing in both harsh growls and clean vocals which may have been the first time that was really done in metal to that extent. Swano has been in so many projects ranging from death metal, progressive metal/rock, goth rock, and even Powermetal. Check out a Steel which is fun 3 song project with Swano and Akerfeldt where Swano sings in a ridiculous falsetto which is great but also hilarious.
Mikael Akerfeldt's featured vocal sections are at 7:15 , 22:42 and a couple other parts.
Yeah, being a long time Opeth fan and hearing this for the first time, I'd already state that Swanö was way ahead of Opeth at this time as well. /Embarrassed, ignorant Swede 🫣
Indeed. Edge of Sanity gets painfully little recognition. But they paved the way for so much that came after. Enigma is still one of the best death metal tracks ever made.
@@progperljungman8218Dan Swanö produced the first two Opeth albums as well. Definitely a pioneer of this melodic progressive death metal style.
@@chagatainouveau Yeah I knew. But never knew he was this good this early on. At least I won't die not knowing 😁
@@progperljungman8218 you should definitely check out the riffage on Purgatory album.
Originally Crimson was one 40 minute long song. The CD I bought way back when had one song: Crimson 40 minutes. The label made him break it up into 8 parts. Crimson II. Has like 30 some songs ranging from 40 seconds or so to one minute 40 some seconds. Crimson tells a unified story if you read the lyrics. Its supposed to be 1 song.
It's about time you've done this masterpiece! Great analysis, as always.
Some things to note regarding continuity: on the original album it is one seamless 40 min track, there are no individual songs or movements marked or labeled in any way in the liner notes. I believe they did this splitting when mp3s and music streaming took over. The same thing was done to Insomnium's "Winter's Gate" song/album. Do yourself a favor and lister to the proper version to avoid those distracting breaks and also hear the last 5 seconds of the song which are ethereal and help release the tension (they are cut off on the version you listened to). Coincidentally, "Crimson II" (the sequel to this album released 7 years later) was intentionally put into movements as individual tracks, though it was still composed as one long song.
Obviously, you need to analyze Crimson II, Winter's Gate and Green Carnation's "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" now!
I concur. Those are a must.
This. Also add first two Unanimated, ATG and Eucharist albums, Autumn Leaves' albums, Stormkeep, Inanna, Intestine Baalism and Garden of Shadows and so much more.
Thanks for the crossfade explanation. It sucks that this is the version that most people will find.
Legendary album, definitely a milestone in prog death genre. But now you are obliged to react Crimson II, which is even more prog with a clean production. Also has nods to the previous Crimson, since it is the continuation of the story. There are multiple instances of the same riffs with variationa being used.
Wow! I've really been missing out on them! ... I can't blame it on not being aware of Dan Swanö - THE man behind this band (that apparently has been ending up as his one man project). I do know that Dan Swanö is something of a phenomenon in Swedish heavy prog and was also one of the founding members of Bloodbath (to get some straight forward death metal outlet together with others who did more intricate stuff in their main bands, like e.g. Mikael Åkerfeldt whom you mentioned - although he wasn't the singer at the "Eaten album" while Dan Swanö was still in the band)
I also know that Dan is extremely talented and plays virtually all instruments in a metal setting (and have been changing duties in his bands)
Great reaction and analysis again. I was glad to get to discover and enjoy this alongside you!
I can't believe this channel is soooo underrated, it's criminal. You're amazing Bryan, thanks for keeping at this!
Gothic rock was a massive influence on Dan Swanö, the songwriter/vocalist/guitarist/producer here. The song 'Sacrificed' featured on a previous album of theirs is basically a Sisters of Mercy tribute. That's probably where the gothic style deep vocals come from.
Plus Sacrificed on The Spectral Sorrows is also a stand-out goth track.
he has a whole gothic rock project in Nightingale
Black Tears :)
I'm like a kid in a candy shop watching this, EOS is one of my favorite bands of all time and to see someone analyze and appreciate them on this level is an absolute treat. Thanks man, I enjoyed the hell out of this
Oh yes, Crimson at last, which along with Crimson II is perhaps the most influential album to the past 8 years of my life.
Thanks to Sean for requesting this masterpiece, you the man !!! ( and to Bryan of course 😅 )
Never thought I'd see it! Thank you so much for doing Crimson!
Holy shit! good job choosing this! one of my absolute fav, great song with great variation and story
One of my favorite death metal albums! I love how it stays true to ita death metal roots, but goes all kinds of places and is very ambitious. I mean the guitar work alone is some of the best in extreme metal for sure
its a phenomenal piece of music but like genius indicated normally its not fragmented into parts its a single continuous one track album, that means that some of the part transitions in your version have fade in/outs when there shouldn't be any or a sharper stop than the actual cd version, still most of it is intact so its not a huge deal just would probably alleviate some of your criticisms, also wiki of this album has a pretty good summary of the narrative
i think i did recommend it a long time ago but understanding that a 40 min album is a commitment, but it finally happened, glad you liked it, there is also crimson II, another single track behemoth of an album, if this one is a 10, the second is easily a 9, slightly weaker but still another masterpiece and also continues the story
Oh my god, if I could travel back in time and listen to it the first time. AND know that Crimson II is still waiting for you man :D
1:11:11 there's no "tracks" or "parts", this is the single song!
While talking about crazy fun metal.
There is a black metal album, very comparable to this one (Dan Swano was one of the two main contributors for it also). It called
Diabolical Masquerade - Death's Design
And then Crimson II :D
What a masterpiece!!!!❤❤❤❤
This is my first time listening. I really enjoyed it. Something to add to my catalog and listen to again.
Oh I am very surprised that you react to this. He, Dan Swanö, has an awesome solo album called Moontower and I hope you will pick up this one somewhen in the future.
I never thought the day would come when this masterpiece got a solid reaction video.
Hell yeah! More people need to hear about EoS!
I'm more a fan of the second Crimson, but this album is just so clever and inventive.
Thx for the reaction.
You need Crimson II, it's good!!
Btw, when you are doing black metal week? I think that I could drop some good stuff on occasion for further musical exploration ;)
I think we've done 3 BM weeks, which is quite a bit more than any other genre. It might take some time before we revisit it and I'd wager that when we do it'll be something outside the frame of standard Black Metal.
@@CriticalReactions Thanks for reply, good to know! That's quite a bit, to be honest, I will be following next announcements in that case. Bm has a lot to offer, apart from classic and orthodox stuff(sounds contradictory), that's when things get more interesting for objective observer. It's also much easier to get into it, when you are doing a whole album, since it is important to dive into this sound and concept with head. Separate songs mostly feel bit abrupt.
Yes! Crimson and Crimson II are top notch. Dan Swano as others have said is probably the biggest towering titan of Swedish metal.
This is one album you'll find in every death metal fan in my age group.
Has a very movie soundtrack/stage musical feel with the over-arching structure. It's different songs with the same spinal cord and recurring motifs. Like the same car driving down a few different highways with but always coming back to the same garage.
Diabolical Masquerade is another band that taps into this pretty hard.
Diabolical Masquerade is basically Anders Nyström's solo project, and Dan Swanö produced all of his albums as well as playing drums and keyboards on some of them.
This sound is really the brainchild of a couple of childhood friends from Stockholm. Anders, Dan, Mikael from Opeth, and Jonas, who is a bandmate of Anders in Katatonia, were all childhood friends. They also formed Bloodbath together.
Just an enormously talented group of musicians.
@@chagatainouveau diabolical masquerade is such a great project…especially Nightwork
Seeing all the Dan Swano loves in the comments warms the heart. Also check out Moontower. Dan Swano's Solo prog death metal project.
Crimson II is also really good, might wanna check that out as well.
Love this album (and Crimson 2). I can throw them on in the background any old time and its perfect to play as a single long song👏💀
Regarding the story:
The child is not a boy, it's the princess.
Women giving birth to only boys means humanity can breed again, but not really because only men are being born (civil war foreshadowing).
The dialogue happens between the princess (queen regnant now) and her master (we don't know who he is), and he tells her to wipe out the humanity.
Not a happy ending BTW "They had found a new leader to worship. / A king with her clear-blue eyes."
That certainly makes a bit more sense. And I must have missed that final description of the eyes to indicate that her child will rule now.
The album works very well in loop. Ending of 8 perfectly connects with start of 1, both in music and story
I always listen to the entire album gapless. Truly astonishing 40 minute story they tell. It was meant as a one piece I believe. I get no dips, fades pauses or skips in gapless. Never seen them live but wiuld be crazy to play the whole album live like that lol.
Great reaction! Really enjoyed this.
Crimson is one of the best albums in metal and in music in general.
You should try Pan-Thy-Monium 'Dawn of dreams'. It was the band Dan Swano (Edge of Sanity) played with his brother and it was unlike anything else in this genre.
Dan Swano is essentially the man in Death Metal (and Black Metal considering he produced both Dissection albums)
All right who's gonna suggest Insomnium - Winter's Gate as the next special selection?
btw since we're talking Dan Swano, check out his album Moontower. It's amazing
You should try Diabolical Masquerade's Death's Design. It's like this but more in your ballpark, and produced by Edge of Sanity's Dan Swäno.
nightwork is amazing by them imo
@@Othraerir, their four CDs are brutal! I can't decide which I like better, Nightwork or The Phantom Lodge.
Death's design is nothing short of a masterpiece! Even more underrated than Crimson
Pan.Thy.Monium - The Battle of Geeheeb, I beg you!
Probably my favorite album of all time, in the top 3 anyway. Simply great. I get goose bumps even after having heard it a hundred times already.
An addition to my previous comment, in an interview Dan Swanö described this album as being an "Opeth rip-off" that was inspired by Orchid, Opeth's debut album which Dan produced.
Both do have nice black metal vibes, among the melodic and proggy Death Metal. But I do have to say that Crimson is much more riff based compared to Orchid.
now it would be natural to go for crimson 2, please let this thought come true
If you’re interested in Dan Swano’s even more experimental side, check out Pan.thy.Monium, which has everything from bluesy jams to groovy death metal with skronky saxophone solos and wacky soundscapes
Nice video, Crimson is one of my favorite melodeath albums but there's definitely some stuff in there (especially toward the end) that could've used a little more time in the oven. Regarding melody in death metal, if you haven't checked out Anata I would highly recommend anything from The Conductor's Departure. Melodic tech death with a heavy emphasis on the "melodic" part. Despite having more of the consistent heaviness that you'd expect from death and some of the more frenetic, complex riffing of tech, it has beautiful melodies with a very unique counterpoint with the guitars. It's a sound that's truly their own, and as much as tech death has had a renaissance of sorts over the past decade nobody has really tried to imitate it.
The original album has just one track, it's not hacked up like this. One coherent song. I really dislike how they cut it up for streaming media. So unnecessary. Ruins the experience so much if you ask me, especially with those unnecessary fades added to it.
Regarding Goth vibes, Dan really liked to mix in some goth influences into his soundscapes. There are a few EoS tunes that should be considered pure goth rock or goth metal, like Sacrificed and Black Tears, and the whole first album of his Nightingale project is definitely 100% gothic, intentionally.
Too long since I went into the lyrics of the song, but yes, it's definitely one of those songs you need to read the lyrics with the song to make sense of it.
If you ever do another EoS reaction in the far future, do something from the Purgatory Afterglow album, such as Twilight, Blood-Colored or Elegy. Recommend it.
If you want the classic prog rock side of Dan Swanö, check out his band Nightingale. He can't do wrong IMO
EoS riffs and melodies are just pure f'n gold.
edt. regarding the gothic metal vibes... check out the song "Black Tears". Soo tasty '80 goth rock vibe.
pt4, is so reminiscent of old Amorphis, I mean like Karelian Isthmus and Tales.
Holy grail..... somehow! Not perfect but near and M A of Opeth in it.... I love it soooo much!
Theres definitely something missing at the end of part 7 just before part 8 where the angelic voices start....
dude, you are literally reviewing the soundtrack of my teen years, before you start, i kow you will be impressed.. thius is such a jewel of an album...
23:42 reminds me of raining blood by slayer
loving your reaction
Legendary DM album. Opeth get all the credit for mixing extreme metal and prog, but this album was a watershed (npi) for that sub-genre. It made Dan Swano a household name among metal fans and he's been a prolific force in metal ever since. It's awesome stuff with tremendous replay value. This reaction reminds me it's been a while since I heard it myself!
Whoa, I didn't expect this one! Crimson is for sure one of the greatest albums out there, though personally I find Crimson II more palatable. Chances are you'll like that one just as much as this one, or even better.
The song I've been recommending, The Kaleidoscopic God by Scar Symmetry, sound overall quite similar to the sound of Edge of Sanity, but I think that song has better written transitions.
HELL YEAH BROTHER
I think some people already mentioend it, but on the 1 track CD back in the 90ies there were no fades of course (being one track). Because it is that famous "40 minute one song" release. I think some technicalities etc after that has had to chop up the song into several parts at some points.
There's stuff missing between part 7 and part 8. Part 7 ends at 31:52 and part 8 begins at 32:40 (both in the original track). Weird that they'd not only chop the track up (with the weird crossfades), but also remove material. The original track is exactly 40:00 long FWIW, so that's probably not the only thing missing.
Also, there is actually some silence in the part that was removed there.
Yeah, it's definitely gothy. Great video!
You need to watch bloodbath live at wacken dvd,ps he plays guitar upside down backwards
Yeah. The brick wall transition. A classic death metal maneuver. Real break your neck shit. Opeth has done it. So has cradle of filth. I wait for these parts. When you can see the brick wall it builds anticipation. Anyway, it's kinda like how punk has that pause thing where everyone jumps and does a split or something (though obituary did make use of that a bunch on the end complete). It is...endemic? Innate? Characteristic of? Something or somesuch. Well, iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii love it.
Comparing it to the punk moment is interesting. At first I thought -- no way, those are totally different. But I think it's because if I'm listening to just audio then those moments are abrupt because I'm not seeing the jump they'd do live (or in the music video) and I don't associate them with the jumping. But live it's a sonic gap that's filled in visually and works -- so I never think about it. But you're absolutely right about them being a similar musical device.
I should add 2 more single-track albums with motif usage through them that you MUST checkout! Well, one actually has 64-tracks but should be treated as 1, and guess who's involved with it, Dan Swanö; Death's Design by Diabolical Masquerade - A one man piece band and the album is the OST to a never-release Swedish horror movie! The second is Light of Day, Day of Darkness by Green Carnation; a 1-track 1hr album about the experience of a dad losing their kid to cancer and going through the emotions, which actually happened to one of the band members.Oh and a third bonus nominee for cross-album use of motif! Nightingale's first 4 albums (The Breathing Shadow, The Closing Chronicles, I, and Alive Again), which of course are by Dan Swanö.
Sounds like Dan is somebody I should be keeping an eye on!
@@CriticalReactions for sure!!
Thumbs up just for the selection alone. Not a lot of people doing Crimson.
Crimson II is light-years ahead of this. Hope you check it out next
I learnt never to sleep on Scandinavian metal when I heard this shit in the 90's
As for the track, as a single listen, it can kinda drag, but it's still a great example of the penchant of metal bands during this moment for just doing whatever they put their minds into. But even if at times the creativity does not quite match the execution, there's an earnestness in the willingness to move into what were at the time completely uncharted waters that to my ears hasn't been fully matched since. ANd it's that sheer enthusiasm, almost naivety that makes it pretty timeless.
Also, the mesh of influences, especially drumming wise comes from the fact that these are the guys writing the blueprint. They didn't so much take influence from death metal as they created the blueprint for death metal. ANd especially the swedish death metal scene of the 90s was fairly punk inspired. Funny then, that things come full circle and so much of the harsher crust punk of today literally steals old swedish death metal's guitar sound.
Them being at the forefront of the sound and having not much, if anything, to base it on is great context. I knew it sounded a bit rough but couldn't place why.
Dan Swanö, bit off on lyrical tale, but close. You are right about reading lyrics with music, definitely coherent theme... battles during faster parts, mourning in slow parts...
Also, not a happy ending... "the one with the clear blue eyes", a lyrical throwback, showing the story as possibly being part of a pattern.
There is also Crimson II, but I don't know it as well
The fading is the streaming service’s doing unfortunately. The album is just one track.
And yeah, the goth metal vocals are pretty goofy on this one lol.
Very good, note the similarities to the bloodbath track you did
Dan Swano (the guy behind this band) was not only in Bloodbath for their fist 2 albums, but he played 4 different instruments for them and did backing vocals lol. And produced the albums... and did the audio mixing for them.
Worth noting that Swano has done audio engineering and mixing and even produced a bunch of Opeth albums. He's responsible for guiding a lot of bands into their final form.
I guess a moderately decent comparison is he's like the Kanye West of Scandy metal.
@@Stand_By_For_Mind_Control I'm not sure I like that comparison lol. I get what you mean though
@@DaronMGL Haha it was very reluctant. Just a combination of being a) respected as a musician (I disagree about Kanye but lots of people don't) with a lot of output, and also being an extremely prolific producer on top of that, with audio engineer credibility.
If Rick Rubin played music or if Butch Vig was more celebrated, I probably would've used them as comparisons lol. Much more musically related.
Could do a whole series of reviews focusing on Swanö. Check his wiki, has a list of projects and his involvement, it's a big list, AND it's not even complete.
IMO, he deserves credit for the rise of Swedish Melodeath. Another fun fact, Akerfeld (Opeth) does guest vocals on this track.
Crimson 1 and 2 are one song. In the 90s the disc was released 1 track
HOLYYY SHITE
there is more like 5-10 seconds after the sudden silence of the last part. Cause I dont recall the ending that abrupt.
You should definitely react to Crimson 2 next.
Great track, and a monster one to do a commentary to. I'll say you nailed it pretty good. They definitely butchered this single track with the parts though. The ending was missing and that slow droning vocal part fades in from silence, rather than abruptly appearing like it did. I think your thumbnail is a totally different band though. Cheers for the doing this song to the Great Edge of Sanity
Fuck yeah!!!!!!!
u may want to react to Hypocrisy 'chemical whore'
&
Morbid Angel 'Lion's den', it's real death metal but still melodic
Wish you will make a reaction to Nightingale-Nightfall overture .Another masterpiece by Dan Swano !
This album is actually supposed to be one 40 minute song. I have it on CD and it does not have any of the fade in/out crap. That actually got added as a DRM measure and I fucking hate it
Uggggh. I'm glad I finally have an answer as to why this version has those fades but I'm more upset to find out it's some garbage drm thing. As usually, DRM makes the product worse for the person who legally engages with the product. 😒
If you want this topped: listen to Renaissance - The death of art, which is a 40 minuten progressive death metal masterpiece.
You did it!!!! Check out one of Dan's other bands Nightingale. Gothic/rock but great nonetheless.
Nightingale is the thing!
I find it funny how during the CD period we could spit out songs the length of the width of the medium and actually some bands did. Now we can make songs even longer but very few even dare to make a 15 minute song.
The coincidence! .... Death metal week - this as a special selection - with a main man who co-founded Bloodbath... Sure you didn't set this up?...
I wish I could take credit for this lining up so well but it was just the cosmic fates. It was supposed to be in the first week back from break but I was swamped and getting behind schedule fast so I postponed it to this week. Honestly with "Edge of Sanity" and 40 minutes I thought I was in store for proggy traditional metal, not death 😅
You do not dig Opeth but at least you dig M. Akerfeldt growling here!!! Smashing!!! P.S. and very present, again, Swedish guitar buzzsaw!
Wait...what!? That's Dan Swano on vocals
@@wolverine669 some parts are åkerfeldt
This needs song needs to be a movie. Or graphic novel.
In a sense, it has already been done. When I presented this song to one of my best friends, he said the lyrics were an almost carbon copy of the plot of "Children of Men". Until I told him that movie was from 2006, the song was from 1996.
super masterpiece! (unfortunately u messed up a bit with the transitions of the player)
and the moods r consistent with the story, too
I did some looking into it and it seems like that's just how it is on Spotify. I finished recording tomorrow's album review and the transitions on that album were perfect so it wasn't something on my end. Shame that this is how some people will end up experiencing this song/album.
@@CriticalReactions right, not directly due to u, but ... thanks anyways, cheers!
This is like if Amorphis had a Godfather 😁
dan swano is just too good
Great album! personally like Crimson II more. Better riffs and no goth vox like this album.
Edge of Sanity was one of my first loves in death metal. It´s really hard to look back without HEAVY rose-tinted nostalgia goggles :D
Casually requests Crimson 2 to further abuse the request policy.... jk it isn't one big song the second time around
Finspång uber alles
Swanö.
That's not Edge of Sanity in the photo...
Thanks, I'll be updating it sometime today with the right band.
I certainly love this album, but Crimson II is objectively much better. Nobody agrees, but that's just because they're ignoring the superior songwriting, riffs, diversity of passages, cohesion, production, and pretty much everything about it.
Indeed… nobody agrees with you.
@@edwinvaltierra6119 and I'm fine being the only one right about this.
awesome except Dan isn’t even in the thumbnail :( edge is one of the greatest bands ever at least the projects with Dan in them
Thanks for the thumbnail info -- I'll get that addressed today!