Enter 6
Black Dolphin

They say that it sometimes takes a long time to put all the pieces into the puzzle but the result is always worth it. Allow me to be sceptical about that, if they compare this band and the long while between albums as the long time and this album as the puzzle, I think they are wrong. This band was formed in 1998, the debut arrived in 2000 and this album called Black Dolphin is their second. The current line up was finalized when bassist Peter Beard joined the two founding members in 2003 and he brought some new ideas into the groove.

It is said to be thrash metal with groove and progressive touches, and perhaps it is. The production is really poor, amateurish, like from a band taking their first step towards creating something that would eventually turn out to be an album. It feels a bit unfinished. The drum sound is strange, and the vocals poor; the album shows no variation and no depth, it is an album that doesn’t really show of any production prowess – or song-writing prowess for that matter. Good thing that they at least keep it short because it would be really tough to listen through it otherwise.

Did you know that they call a prison in Russia Black Dolphin because of a sculpture of a black dolphin near the entrance? It isn’t named Black Dolphin officially but called that and it is a place for really bad people who serve life imprisonment, a place for the worst criminals it appears. This album is not so bad that I want to send the trio there but perhaps to Anstalten Kumla or some other Swedish high security prison – or not, but if music could be criminally bad this isn’t far from it. This is of course a matter of taste but in my view they aren’t particularly impressive, chances are that some people see it differently though – very slim chances but there are chances nonetheless.

The conclusion will have to be that this isn’t a very impressive album, and that view is strengthened by the fact that other reviewers seems to agree with me. Even those that usually give high ratings have given lower rating to this album. It is like they didn’t manage to fit the pieces the way they were supposed to fit, or perhaps there were some pieces missing. Not really an album that I would have waited 19 years for, but then again I would probably not like the debut either. This is really bad, it isn’t even close to hitting the target – is this a joke?

HHHHHHH