This is a reissue of Amber Asylum's out of print debut with the addition of three bonus tracks. Amber Asylum was largely Kris Force on this effort, having handled guitars, samplers, violin, and vocals on all tracks, with some additional guest instrumentation (cello, keyboard, piano, synth, and clarinet) spread out amongst six of the 12 pieces. I've never heard the original record, but this edition was remastered by Steve Austin, and it sounds pretty good, so... hey, there you go. The songs are almost entirely instrumental (only one contains vocals), some more effectively so than others. I certainly prefer the tracks that use fewer keyboards and rely more on the dark string arrangements, as the keyboards can sometimes lend a cheesiness to the tracks and lack the atmosphere that the strings possess. The latter portion of the disc is the strongest, what with the vocal performance in "Aurora" and the nice mix of acoustic guitars and string arrangements in "Romantic". The final three tracks are of a more experimental dark ambient nature, and are also rather interesting compared to most of the disc's first half. The layout is pretty unusual. The booklet folds out into a large four panel square, and the front cover image is repeated in psychedelic fashion, so it's sort of hard to tell exactly what it is. I do like the color scheme a lot, though. Inside is just a lot of metallic silver/bronze looking ink with a small image in one corner and a little bit of text. The one set of cryptic lyrics is included, "Spark of life, Visions wrapped in mink, Will made of steel, Gateways, Fountains of gold and white, Black peace of dreaming... Aurora, aurora, aurora." Upon first listen I didn't like this disc at all compared to the band's more recent work. I still find it to be rather uneventful to a large degree, but there are some moments. It's a bit of a long and somewhat tedious listen as a whole, but a few of the individual tracks are very fucking awesome (namely the incredible "Aurora" - notably due to the vocal presence). This is worth looking into for fans of the band who have been unable to track down their debut, but honestly I find their later work to be far superior.
[Neurot]
Running time - 56:13, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Aurora, Romantic, Diablo de la M?quina]
Neurot Recordings - http://www.neurotrecordings.com
