1996 has been a strange year as far as hard music is concerned. Metallica went, Danzig tried (and failed) at producing industrial metal, and Sepultura got themselves lost in the jungle. Morgoth has followed in the footsteps (with almost completely disastrous results) of the afforementioned bands. They have abandoned the atmospheric doomdeath approach of "Odium" for more of an industrial approach. Except for the addition of a keyboardist, the band members are still the same, which is somewhat unusual for such a drastic swing in style. A few spots on this album are borderline techno, which is the forefather of the scourge of modern society: dance music. The album opens up respectably enough with "This Fantastic Decade", a somewhat intense opening track, complete with a catchy riff and impressive drumming. Unfortunately the rest of the album doesn't fare so well. My biggest complaint here is that there is next to nothing to distinguish one song from another, and this album quickly becomes very boring. The trans-ambient noise invading the background of many of these songs is often completely out of place. The vocal delivery contains a hint of aggression, but is much weaker than the previous death metal style. The guitars one the album have been cleaned up, and as a result Morgoth loses much of the power they previously delivered. As this album is more keyboard and beat driven than before, much of the guitar melody previously present has been lost. The artwork on the cover, insert, and disc itself is fairly unusual, to put it mildly. Demented looking clowns, vintage automobiles, and even a two headed grow grace the insert. This strange layout is the perfect accompaniment for a substandard album. Morgoth was enjoyable when playing death metal, now this is a band that is a chore to listen to.
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