Description

Black vinyl with printed innersleeves. Limited 500 numbered copies

Vital Remains before Benton was a menagerie of atmosphere that today seemed to focus on creating a black metal atmosphere while playing death metal. Though this had been forgotten by the release of Icons of Evil, we still have a historical record of what blackened death metal should sound like with their 1995 release, Into Cold Darkness. The frozen atmospherics before some of the songs greatly enhance the experience of listening to this album, from the opening bells that warn of the impending musical assault to the howling wolf, the album begins with a cold chill that is blast beaten into the psyche of the listener. In the opening song, Immortal Crusade, the guitars wail behind a wall of symphonic sound that breaks up the frantic pace of the song that had begun to turn the song into an evil feeling piece of black metal. This band has creating blackened death metal down to a science where its not too much of one genre and too little of another. There is plenty of brutality in the incredibly fast and precise drumming to deem this death metal but also enough snare and cymbal pounding to make the drums sound like black metal blasts. The riffs go between the technical frantic soloing, and chugging in death metal to the simpler but colder tremolo picked riffs normally found in black metal. The evil atmosphere is all topped off by Vital Remains vocalist, Jeff Gruslin whose growls empower the death metal half of this release as well as some high pitched shrieks and overdubbing of growls and shrieks to up the ante on the evil expressed in the music. The songwriting is nearly flawless, every song is unique and has its own atmosphere. There is nothing too repetitive in any of the songs as they all deliver on giving each instrument a chance to show off at different times during the album. Production in general is really good for an underground death metal release from 1995, Into Cold Darkness is much clearer than even some of todays latest death metal releases. There is very little blending of instruments and nothing is overshadowed. In all, Into Cold Darkness is definitely an overlooked Vital Remains offering from a lineup that captured the feel and musical direction of blackened death metal perfectly, and unlike Icons of Evil, did not try to seem more evil and extreme than they were. The evil feel was captured perfectly and intelligently with just enough emotion and atmospheric enhancement to drive the point home and to respect both the genres of black metal and death metal.

Track listing:
1. Immortal Crusade
2. Under The Moons Fog
3. Crown Of The Black Hearts
4. Scrolls Of A Millenium Past
5. Into Cold Darkness
6. Descent Into Hell
7. Angels Of Blasphemy
8. Dethroned Emperor-Celtic Frost cover
9. Countess Bathory-Venom cover