Review by Jack on February 5, 2002.

I always find the eternal clash between religion and metal to be a truly interesting and intriguing one. On one hand you will find the devout atheists, agnostics and satanists saying; “Metal and religion don’t mix, down with God!” (with satanists, contradicting themselves time and time again) and then you will have the small minority of fans and bands that dig the religious message (more than likely to be from a Christian background), all in all it really does make for some interesting conversation.

I’m sure Antithesis have copped a lot of flack for incorporating God and religion into their lyrics and I know for a fact a couple of ‘zines that will overlook bands because of this factor. This of course is just crap, because Antithesis as a matter of fact are capable of blowing many a band and skeptic out of the water with their well thought out mixture of progressive, power and thrash melodies. Which all in all makes “Dying for Life” one of the more interesting/unique listens from the power metal genre.

One issue that I feel I have to mention in regards to Antithesis’ “Dying for Life” is the guitar playing, while not being a musician myself, I can certainly appreciate tasty guitar licks when I hear them, and Antithesis are well above the norm in terms of their playing capacities...

The lyrical content possibly remains one of the most interesting facets of “Dying for Life”. Real life hard hitting issues are discussed here, while I’m not that strongly opposed to tales of flying wizards and fire-breathing dragons, it does get a tad monotonous and Antithesis break up the power metal genre’s norm with fine lyrics tackling topics in corruptibility and bankruptcy in politics for example.

Bottom Line: Solid mixes of power, progressive and thrash equals a fine cocktail in my book, and one that it might not hurt to dig up, combined with interesting lyrics and solid guitar riffs, make “Dying for Life” a good listen.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 7
Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 6
Production: 6
Overall: 6.5

Rating: 6.7 out of 10