ATROCITY — Hallucinations (review)

Album · 1990 · Technical Death Metal

4.5/5 · 2010-04-16
UMUR

"Hallucinations" is the debut full-length studio album by German death metal act Atrocity. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in October 1990 and was recorded in June/July 1990 at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida and produced by Scott Burns and Atrocity. "Hallucinations" is one of the early examples of German death metal and widely regarded as a classic European death metal album from the early nineties.

The music on "Hallucinations" is one part blasting deathgrind and one part technical death metal. I remember the album was described as technical death metal back then. The vocals by Alex Krull is not your usual guttural death growls but more a higher pitched aggressive growling style. The musicianship are on a high level and the band handle the many abrupt tempo- and time signature changes in great style.

"Hallucinations" is a concept album. The story is about a girl who is sexually abused by her father starting at the age of 4 (unpleasantly described in the opening track "Deep in Your Subconscius", and I mean really unpleasant lyrics), her emotional problems as a consequence of the incest, her subjection to heroin and the devastating social and emotional problems caused by her addiction. The closing track on the album "Last Temptation" describes her untimely but inevitable death of a heroin overdose. As such a classic social realistic drama theme which have been used before (I´m instantly reminded of the Christiane F. movie), but the lyrics are really well written here and provide an extra dimension to the music. Some of the best lyrics on a death metal release if you ask me. Make sure you have the lyrics at hand when you listen to the album.

The 8 tracks on the album are all high quality compositions and listening to tracks like "Deep in Your Subconscius" and the title track is an extremely rewarding experience. The more direct and brutal "Fatal Step" is also among the highlights. A really Powerful track that one.

The sound production is not without flaws even though it ultimatly suits the music well. It´s brutal and powerful and serves it´s purpose but it´s simply too messy and even noisy at times which takes away focus from some of the really well played technical riffs. To top it off the snare drum sound is somewhat of an abomination. Scott Burns sound productions are a bit hit and miss and for every good one that he made there´s a bad one too. Unfortunately "Hallucinations" falls under the latter catagory. When that is said I´m still able to enjoy the album without focusing too much on the messy sound production.

Despite the sound production issues "Hallucinations" is an excellent debut album by Atrocity. It´s quite unique sounding, the high level musicianship are a great asset, and the concept story works really well. Death metal fans who are only familiar with the later goth/industrial metal releases by Atrocity should take a listen to this one. I´m sure many will be in for a positive surprise. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.