Infernal, Edge of Sanity's follow-up to its single-song concept album, Crimson, shows the band balancing sharp melodies with much more brutal, primitive music that is indicative of its earlier work, rather than its later, more complex material. Vicious and belligerent one moment, subdued and introspective the next, Infernal races down a path of raw death metal intermingled with compelling harmonies. Opener "Hell is Where the Heart Is" rages like a hungy grizzly bear pumped full of amphetemines, which provides a striking contrast to the melodically-inclined "Losing Myself". As interesting as this album is, the two forces seem to be at odds with each other, which has resulted in singer/guitarist/songwriter/producer Dan Swano taking his leave. "Infernal was written 40% by me and 60% by the other guys. I usually write 80% of the music but this time I decided to make sure my songs were all top notch and therefore I wrote less than half of the album. I feel that my songs are a step forward musically, while the other guys' songwriting is pretty much the way we sounded a few years back, which I feel is strange. I always tried to get the band [to move] forward but they like the style that no one else liked except for them, so I quit the band!!" Lyrically, Swano did not write as many of the lyrics because he feels that he is not the best wordsmith: "I placed very high demands on my songs this time so I wanted the lyrics to be as good as the music...since I know that I suck as a lyricist most of the time, I decided to let someone take over the lyric-writing for this CD." Swano's only lyrical contribution was to "The Last Song", which questions, unsurprisingly, why he has so much trouble writing lyrics. Writing the previous album, Crimson, proved to be even harder. "I hate the lyrical part of a concept album, you have to become some kind of hobby novel writer which I am not. Musically all my recordings have a concept, which is MY HARMONIES - I have a specific kind of harmony which I use for all my music, progressive or death metal." Swano's attempts to move ahead musically were constrained by the bandmembers, thus his love for progressive music did not come through as clearly on Infernal as he would have liked: "I have grown as a musician and could finally play all the instruments (except drums) myself. But I donīt know about the other guys, they pretty much sound like always. I try to make my music as harmonic and beautiful as possible, but like the opposite of a wolf in sheep's clothing." When asked about how he feels about death metal bands that progress and cast aside the brutality of their death metal roots, Dan answers, "You will be able to hear 'creative progress' on my first album [that I release after leaving] Edge of Sanity. I have always believed that we could combine the brutality and the melodies in a good way by always having good harmonies in the riffs. Then it doesnīt matter what kind of structure or mood you choose for a song, the harmonies are always there and this allowed us to be brutal and melodic at the same time - that is fine with me." Swano's appreciation for harmonies extends to bands outside of the metal spectrum and, when asked what are some of the cheesiest bands that he listens to, he states that, "there are too many. I can name a few. Richard Marx, FM, ELO, Stryper, Journey, Asia, Suzy Boguss, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Rick Price...I am a sucker for AOR." Live, Dan doesn't bestow his band with too many positive comments: "Edge of Sanity is a really terrible live act and I do really hope that the other guys donīt go touring without me and destroy our already horrible live reputation." With testament such as this, I suspect that Mr. Swano's assistance in restoring the band's live image is probably not wanted. Dan continues, talking about the strangest show that Edge of Sanity played, which was "in a beer tent at some football championship in front of five people while thousands of people yelled for us to stop playing cause they wanted to watch football instead." For Swano, the future will hold a variety of projects: "I have always wanted to play guitar on our records but it always felt wrong until now. And since I have left the band I will start recording [material similar to] Edge of Sanity all alone and do the drums as well." Swano sees his forthcoming musical efforts more fully embracing the melodic ethos presented on the most harmonically-inclined track of Infernal, "Losing Myself". With the doors to Unisound Studios now closed, and his withdrawal from his main band, Swano plans to "spend it [the extra time] writing better material for all the projects I have going: the new Edge of Sanity- sounding thing; Nightingale; and Unicorn. And make sure to be there all the way when my son is growing strong. For 1997, Swano believes that extreme metal "is gonna be a lot heavier", and offers his opinion that "speed sucks!!" Around the release of Crimson, it appeared that Edge of Sanity was poised for something great, although the loss of Swano raises the question of what direction the band will go in, if at all. Infernal stands as an impressive close to an era, although hopefully it will usher in something new for both Swano and the remaining bandmembers.

| Main | News | Interviews | Reviews | About | Links | Newsletter |

© 2002 Chaotic Critiques.
All writing property of the respective author(s)
and may not be used without permission.