Grabs by the throat and never lets go
Ty Arthur | 12/27/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"From the very start of the first track, Highest Beauty will furiously scream to anyone within earshot exactly what can be expected from the rest of the album, which is pulse pounding, heart ripping death metal that grabs for the throat and doesn't let go until the last track ends. Where other bands in the genre might interject a mellow instrumental track to punctuate the heavy sequences, or possibly intersperse the head banging metal with melodic keyboard or violin work, In Thy Dreams is clearly interested solely in tearing down the foundations of the universe with non-stop heavy guitar work and shredding the listener's ears to mush with their growls, shrieks, and screams.
For the first offering from a death metal band, Highest Beauty has really good production values. Vocals are always clear over guitars, guitars never drone out drums, and so forth. This is an anomaly in the metal world, as most black/death metal band's early releases are characterized by incredibly poor production values. The album also manages to never get overly repetitive or boring, which is another aberration from the genre norm. Just as any given song is about to cross the line into boring repetition, guitarist Jari Kuusisto will suddenly switch gears and go in a completely different direction, or vocalist Thomas Lindfors will vary from a deep Cannibal Corpse style growl into a more high pitched shriek that echoes from the bowls of hell. The band seems to very clearly realize the limitations of straightforward death metal, working well within those limitations to produce tracks with just enough variation to keep a listener hooked for the whole album. The songs always end exactly when they should, never floundering on with the same riff over and over to make the album longer.
The only real downside to Highest Beauty is the lyrics. While there are a few notable exceptions, if you were to transpose the majority of these lyrics with those found from bands like AFI and My Chemical Romance you probably couldn't even tell which band was which. Each song is very "Emo" oriented, focusing on how everything is a big spiraling abyss of spiraling darkness that just wont stop spiraling ever further downward into despair (someone grab me a razor now, I'm feeling like I'm spiraling into some suicidal tendencies). Thankfully, the growls are so guttural and intense for the most part the lyrics are unintelligible unless the CD insert is actually cracked open.
Other reviews have noted a similarity between In Thy Dreams and At The Gates. This is a moderately accurate comparison, as they are in the same genre and do have similar guitar styles (and at one point Lindfors does actually scream "Go!", like the now classic beginning to At The Gate's album "Slaughter of the Soul"), however In Thy Dreams never fluctuates from unstoppable death metal like At The Gates has a tendency to do, and the vocals are clearly distinguishable from one another.
Highest Beauty sets out to give it's listeners an in your face brutal death metal experience second to none, and it undeniably succeeds."
Best Melodic Thrash/Death album since SotS
The Shaman | VA | 09/05/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These guys are highly underrated in my opinion. Some pass them off as At The Gates wannabes, but they were still playing that kickass style in 2001 while the rest of the Gothenburg scene was fading from its prime and cheesing up their sound. They kept it real, to say the least. If you are into Slaughter of the Soul or the band Carnal Forge (a few of In Thy Dreams members are in both projects), then you will like this album. It holds the essence of the triplette thrash beat as well as incorporating some death-growling. I love this CD, what can I say?"
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
Todd B. from PASCOAG, RI