Edge of Sanity — Unorthodox

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…

31 years ago today, “The Unorthodox” was “Dead but Dreaming” in the “After Afterlife”!

On this day (July 8 ) in 1992, Edge of Sanity released their second full-length studio album, “Unorthodox” via Black Mark Productions. It was recorded in between December 1991 and January 1992 with Tomas Skogsberg.

Background:

“Unorthodox”, with tracks like "Enigma" and "When All Is Said", saw Edge of Sanity breaking away from some of the genre's norms, being the first Edge of Sanity album (one of the first Death Metal albums) to feature clean vocals, which appear briefly in the track "Enigma". The track itself is separated into three parts or psalms; “Psalm I: The Blessing”, “Psalm II: Celestial Dissension”, and “Psalm III: The Loss of Hallowed Life”, and is played out like an opera featuring Dan Swano as “The Priest”, guitarist Andreas “Dread” Axelsson as “The Unorthodox”, and guest vocalist Yasmina Molero as "The Witch".

In an interview with Reaper Metal Productions, Dan Swanö spoke about his great plans for the song "Enigma" and his experience with recording “Unorthodox”, the album. Swanö said that he had four guys singing the intro together, and said that he wanted it to sound like an enormous church choir singing while “The Preacher” was preaching.

However, Dan said that they never recorded the choir, so what you hear in the song is Dan's guide vocals. He also said that, when he was singing that part, he not only sang it all in one breath, but while recording the part, one of his idols at the time, Leif Edling from Candlemass walked into the control room. He said, “of all the times to walk in, Leif had to walk in and see how Dan “the so called Death Metal god” was singing in this high-pitched voice like a school boy".

Although, some have said that “Unorthodox” is Dan Swanö’s favorite Edge of Sanity album, claiming that he went as far as to call it "perfect", during an interview in Anatomia #1 in 1993, Dan Swanö contradicts these claims by saying;

“...the only really good song that I stil believe would make it onto album after album is "Enigma", just a superior track... we'll never write a better track ever. The rest of the album feels dusty now, if it wasn't for my girlfriend's neverending joy in playing it now and then I would have probably sold my copies. But some classy riffs are on there!”

The albums third track, "Incipience to the Butchery" is a re-recording from the band's 1989 "Euthanasia" demo which see’s the band in old form. And, while other tracks like "Beyond the Unknown" and "Cold Sun" are also steeped in old-school Death Metal aggression, “Unorthodox” as a whole is in ambulation, moving about from one dynamic to another, featuring different textures and melodies not otherwise common to the core of OSDM. “Enigma” is a great example of this diversity, with its inclusion of a cello on top of the use of the clean vocals. More tracks including such intricacies are "In the Veins/Darker Than Black," "Everlasting," and "Dead but Dreaming." Lastly, we have the albums closing track, "When All Is Said," which stands out as the most experimental track on “Unorthodox”. The inclusion of piano and string sections on this song were a foreshadowing of Edge of Sanity’s transition to a more melodic sound on the bands following album, 1993's "The Spectral Sorrows". — E.N. Wells

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

Click this link to listen to “Unorthodox” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/unorthodox/290409857

Click this link to listen to “Unorthodox” via Spotify: Unorthodox https://open.spotify.com/album/6tDNbL4U69OMwNZc2Jom5j

Click this link to follow the Edge of Sanity fan page on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Edge-of-Sanity-318140074943924/

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells

Edge of Sanity — Unorthodox

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