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2001
Organasm
About This Album
Australia's Alchemist are a true rarity among metal bands. In a genre where six-strings rule supreme, keyboards and synths have always been viewed with extreme caution, and rightly so, since historically most of their contributions to heavy metal have resulted from ulterior motives of overcommercialization and, hence, are counterproductive to the genre's uncompromising tenets as an underground movement. Still, in rare instances over decades past, a few bands, like Rush and Faith No More, have integrated keyboards with very positive results and without corrupting their sound, usually because these merely accentuate and never overwhelm the final product. Alchemist fall into that category. Their fourth album, 2000's Organasm (only released in the U.S. the following year) is so complex and original that it defies a summary definition, but one might describe it as a psychedelic-prog-soundtrack-death metal album. With its unorthodox splicing of musical styles, opener "Astral Spectrum" (introduced, fittingly enough, by a didgeridoo) quickly sets the album's experimental tone, fusing a thunderous rhythmic hotbed of sub-thrash guitars with atmospheric keyboards taking the shape of flutelike nuances.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,6,7 and 9)

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