### Edge Of Sanity: When all is said

#### 09/03/07 || Lord K Philipson

Dan visited my place some time ago, just to check out my body, and handed over this “Best of” album with the words “If you feel like it, write something about it so people know it exists”. I never understood the idea for compilations. Who buys a “Best of” thing? Except for retarded Kiss fans? Fuck it. The tracklisting here was chosen by people at some forum at some site less awesome than GD. That’s nice, letting the fans determine what songs should be here. 2 songs off each Edge Of Sanity release is what we get with “When all is said”.

The most interesting thing with this album is the liner notes from Dan (mostly, ofcourse) and guitarist Drette though. You get some cool background info (with more typo’s that one could wish for) to the included tunes, and you’ll most likely find out a thing or 2 that you didn’t know before. I did.

It’s safe to say that EOS sure did some real nice tracks thruout the years of existence. There’s no doubt either that EOS were at their best when concentrating on death metal instead of the goth, rock and whatever-flirts. The, by many looked upon as “classic”, EOS tune “Enigma” is still one of the best compositions these guys made, and ofcourse it’s included here. But it’s not all sunshine in the land of EOS on this piece. There are some definite high and lows, as expected when the fans decide the material.

Let’s go through the lows first:

“15:36” and “Hell is where the heart is”, both from “Infernal”. No matter how special those numbers are (read the liner notes) to Mr. Swanö, “15:36” itself is shit. And “Hell is where the heart is” isn’t going anywhere either despite its semi-catchy intro riff. “Black tears” off “Purgatory afterglow” isn’t all that bad but I never liked it. It just feels written for the sake of getting recognition. I’m glad they didn’t quite achieve that becoz of this song coz it’s not representative for EOS as a whole, even if Dan wanted it to be.

Highs:

Opener “Tales” still kicks all kinds of arse with its classic line “You can’t live forever, but can you be dead forever?”. “Human abberation” is another jewel in their treasure chest. Both tracks taken from their debut “Nothing but death remains”, the very album with one of my fave hi-hat sounds. Representing “Unorthodox” is “Enigma” and “In the veins/Darker than black”. One awesome tune, as mentioned earlier, and one paint-by-numbers EOS track. Both rightfully placed here though. “The spectral sorrows” offers “The Masque” and “Lost”. “The masque” is a fine piece without a doubt, but “Lost” could easily have been replaced with pretty much any other song off “Spectral”. So, put that one in the “lows” category, fucko.

The “Until eternity ends” mini-thing hands us the title track off it and “The eternal eclipse”. This effort is the second best thing EOS ever released, only beaten by “Purgatory afterglow”. Both tracks are killer and this release is sadly overlooked. “Purgatory Afterglow” then… The finest album in their career. Edge’s best tune ever, “Twilight”, puts a huge grin on my face. This is nothing but a masterpiece and I still completely adore the guitarsound displayed here. Excellent work, Dan. When Dan was kicked out of the band, “Cryptic” was made. I like this album a hella lot and both “Hell written” and “Bleed you dry” are 2 great tracks. The more back-to-basics approach suits EOS fine and it’s a shame that this album didn’t get more attention.

“Crimson” and “Crimson II” share one of the discs in this 2-disc set. I prefer the first “Crimson” since it holds a rawer and more brutal atmosphere to it. How about that, 2 sentences about 2 whole albums… Impressive. Who fucken cares, you all heard them anyways.

I won’t rate this becoz it’s a compilation and it wouldn’t make much sense. Let’s just say that I would have chosen another tracklisting though some of the gems are included here.

Now I’ll just wait for the reunion album…

- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Black Mark
- Band
- Dan Swanö: vocals
- Robban Karlsson: vocals (track 13 & 14)
- Andreas Axelsson: guitars
- Sami Nerberg: guitars
- Anders Lundberg: bass
- Benny Larsson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Tales…
- 02. Human Aberration
- 03. Enigma
- 04. In The Veins/Darker Than Black
- 05. Lost
- 06. The Masque
- 07. Until Eternity Ends
- 08. Eternal Eclipse
- 09. Twilight
- 10. Black Tears
- 11. 15:36
- 12. Hell Is Where The Heart Is
- 13. Hellwritten
- 14. Bleed You Dry
- 15. Crimson
- 16. Crimson II