It's 1990 and a Asphyx is gaining great underground recognition. They decide to go into a deal with CMFT Productions and record the LP "Embrace The Death". The problem is that the company broke up "...and the LP never say the light of darkness." Thanks to Century Media this album has been revived from the ashes and released (not re-released) for the first time, in it's original 1990 form.
It's the fans of Asphyx who pushed them into getting this album released, and it's probably the fans that will most appreciate this album. Since it is still in it's 1990 form with no modifications, it doesn't have the same quality as you would expect from all the other releases of 1996. Also, being written in 1988/89 it still has that somewhat distinctive 80's flavour to it in places, death metal 80's of course though. In their tuned down state the guitars drive this album throughout. A slow rhythmic procession that occassionally picks up a little bit to add the edge of intensity to the album. It's not all about intensity though, it's a very heavy and tends to drag through the low atmospheric side old true death metal. This combination is what drove people to love Aphsyx so much.
It's possible that whatever happened to the bass to give it that very ambient sound would not be reproducible today without a lot of effort. The bass, if you listen carefully, has an extremely simple pattern to it, but manages to shine (or darken) through on the album. This combined with the very throaty growl of the vocals provides the very atmospheric sound that Asphyx had, and still has.
Still remaining is that it is an older release, and fans of the newer "God Cries" or "Asphyx" may find it goes a little too much into that slow side of death, and it probably won't appeal to anybody who doesn't already listen to death. Neither case though detracts from this being a very album that was worthy of finally being released to the masses.
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