ILLUMINATI - The Core

The Core is an album that I have eagerly anticipated, especially because I fell in love with  Illuminati since the first time I ever saw them play live. Considering the fact that they slowly disappeared from the scene, I started to doubt any possible future for the band. The last time I saw them was in 2010 when they opened for Psycho Symphony, in a venue in Bucharest called Suburbia, where they satisfied all the audience’s expectations. Yet here we are 3 years later and Illuminati unleashes an album upon us that none of us could’ve ever conceived. Apart form the impecable production (already a usual achievement for Romanian musical products), we can also enjoy a batch of very special guests, who basically helped shape progressive death metal.

Those who ever saw Illuminati live know fully well that Stigmatized (Pestilence) never missed form the setlist, so the presence of Patrick Mameli on Please Lose seems to be a natural choice, especially when put into the same context with the other guests. Tymon Kruidenier, who accompanies Masvidal on the superb Traced In Air (Cynic), also makes his appearance, on the album’s title track. From Martyr and Voivod we have Daniel Mongrain, who delivers a breathtaking performance on Gulliver's Extraordinary Journey. My favorite track is undoubtedly Sea of Consciousness – on which Kelly Shaefer and Tony Choy do their ”thing” as only they know how. Speaking of Tony Choy, as Ion Laceanu is the only Romanian folk singer who ever shook president Kennedy’s hand (as seen in the posters on the venues where he would perform his work), I find myself among those who shook the hand of Tony Choy, after the Atheist concert in Studio Martin (a.k.a. one of the best concerts ever put together in Romania). Other guests who grace the album with their presence are: Mike Browning (After Death, ex-Nocturnus, ex-Incubus, ex-Acheron, ex-Morbid Angel) on Storms, and Luc Lemay (Gorguts) who does vocals on Domino Spine. The rest of the songs where no guests appear can be rather labeled as interludes, with distinguishable romanian dialogues paving the background.

Even if the album is filled with the most distinguished of guests, the songs themselves were crafted by Illuminati, who in my opinion achieve a level of composition that perhaps not many would’ve expected. Apart from the fabulous guitar solos, I thoroughly the synth effects. Nevertheless, I noticed some criticizing the band for not being original, that the bass storngly reminisces the work of Sean Malone, and that this genre actually reached its peak in the 90’s when Death, Cynic, Atheist or Pestilence were delivering their greatest efforts. While this is true, the boys in the band released an album that shows no compromise, with music exactly as they like it, which has definitely anchored itself in the Romanian underground, as one of the best releases. Something that confirms their value worldwide is that they managed to gather  the idols with which they grew up with listening – musicians who certainly wouldn’t have accepted to be associated with just any such product!

Fantotzii Nota: 9