Frank's Enemy

Item: Illumination
Author: sesspool

Illumination

(1998)

Reviewed by sesspool

Discogs Bandcamp

Label Cling RecordingsDead Zine1998

death metal grindcore hardcore

Ahh... our good crust core buddies are up to it one last time. This cd starts off with some pretty decent ska actually... at about 30 sec into that, it breaks into some intense and indefinable death metal just like always. One thing that I noticed about this album, was the increased lack of definition in both vocal and instrument categories moving from Neoblasphemies, the guys of Frank's Enemy seemed to decide on experimenting with new vocal styles, new musical styles and still maintain much of the old mixing style. Overall, the vocal effects are more prominent on this album, some have tried to argue that there were no vocal effects on Neoblasphemies... whatever, you can't argue that they exist on this one... as vocals do inhuman vibrations and squealing in the middle of a deep growl. There are times where the vocals have no effects... but often, they have large effects ridden with them. Lyrically, this album is very good issue-wise, but it lacks the flow and luster of earlier frank's enemy lyrical content. It lacks much of the poetic and sophisticated feel to it, and includes more of a down-to-earth feel. More of an approach of a tired musician than a fighting artist. I don't know... but from the history of things, I would say this happened to a degree. In any case, this album has some VERY good musical concepts, and as always, Julio Rey and the others in Frank's Enemy have been under-rated because of mixing. This album has some truly abhorrable mixing... but does have some extremely good material.

Some of my favorite songs on this massive 15 song album are Face To Face Again, My Night Alone, Frank's Enemy Metro and Lamento.

This album has a couple really good songs... the rest of this album is more annoying than good, however, and I can only listen to so much at one sitting. This cd is almost never in my cd rotation, and when it is, there is often a lot of song skipping.

Overall, if you liked both the self-titled and Neoblasphemies, get this as it should give you something of your liking. If you have not heard Frank's enemy, start with either the self-titled or Neoblasphemies.

6/10