Review by Michael on July 3, 2021.

Anasarca from Emden, Northern Germany don't take long (after a short spoken-words intro) to show on their fourth studio album Survival Mode, where the death metal hammer hangs. From the first note on, they beat mercilessly and rarely take their foot off the gas pedal.

Whoever knows anything about the North German death metal scene, will recognize certain parallels on this album to the guys from Obscenity, who play similar, quite brutal death metal. But when the quartet slows down their tempo in between, melodies appear, which reminds me of old Paradise Lost. Recurring elements are the staccato-like riffs, paired with chopping drums and also again and again grind-like vocals are incorporated into the songs. The tracks are on a technically demanding level throughout. Anasarca skillfully manage not to drift into dull banging, but to keep a playfully high level throughout. The only criticism is that the songs sound a bit alike in places, but that's complaining on a high level. The production is very powerful and strong, here there is nothing to complain about. This is how a death metal album must sound! Particularly outstanding tracks are in my opinion the title track, a driving song with a cool doomy intermediate part; 'Blue John' and 'Touching The Void' with very nice melodies as well as groovy parts, just like in 'Endurance' also as a matter of fact.

As a bonus there are five extra tracks added. Two of them are re-recorded, one is a new track and there's cover of Obituary - "Godly Beings" and Vomiting Corpses "Dogmas Ignored" (does anyone besides me know the band?). By the way, singer Michael was the shouter with them until 1995. Nice extras!!!

I can recommend listening to this disc to every death metal maniac, there isn’t much wrong with this!

Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Review by Lumina on January 11, 2026.

Luminesce is yet another prog/tech-death project by Alice Simard (of Vitrified Entity, Coffret De Bijoux, and many, many more), or at least that is what it seems to be on first glance. In my opinion, it is a lot more than that and possibly my favorite tech-death album ever. I say that about pretty much any tech death release I love, but this one is a good contender for actually being my favorite. While I have always liked this album ever since first listening to it, it took me a while to really get it, so to speak. Since, especially recently, I've been listening to it a lot, I want to talk about this project a little before the eventual second full-length later this year comes out, which is also my most anticipated release at the moment aside from Alice's other tech death project called Vitrified Entity. That one will also get a review soon, as that one is also one of my favorite projects ever. But let us get back to Luminesce now.

Obviously, Luminesce is mostly a prog/tech death project, though I feel that description doesn't really do it justice all that much considering how much stuff is in here. There's the aforementioned prog and tech aspects, but also melodic death and some core aspects (i.e, breakdowns and core reminiscent riffs here and there). That aside, as should be obvious by now, I really love this album. Since that is not without reason, let me go over each aspect of "Mirrored". Starting with the vocals, which at first were the aspect I did not think too much about back when I first heard "Mirrored". A grave mistake that was, though, because after some time, this album really just proves how much of a diverse vocalist Alice Simard is. Often, I think of how much this release reminds me of other melodic death metal releases, and I think the vocal style is a good part of why that is. Alice does said vocal style in other things as well, but it especially shines in this album, in my opinion. It contrasts everything beautifully in ways that I shall get into a little later.

But what exactly makes an album good vocals aside? If you ask me, it would be melodic/technical riffs, tremolo runs reminiscent of old In Flames, and some core aspect. Oh, and at least one instrumental-only track since that is still my favorite kind of music. Since my recent-ish venture into more hardcore, metalcore, and grindcore, I have grown to like core aspects being found in usually not very core-esque musicians' works quite a lot. This is no exception, as you can tell. And everything I have mentioned just so happens to be present in this album, and more. Riffs are plenty to be found here, but the genius of them is not something that came to me immediately. I am a big fan of melodic riffs (especially le 578 minor scale riff, I eat that stuff up immediately on anything it's used on), so this album being very melodic was quite nice. Use of piano layers in tracks like 'Pellucid Flora' or 'Bestow Me Meaning, Matriarch' is also something I am a big fan of, and is something Alice seems to like doing. It makes everything that much prettier, which this album especially is. Bass, too, is not an afterthought here, unlike how most of metal seems to like leaving it as, but that is to be expected given Alice Simard's other works.

One last thing to mention is the production and mixing. Alice's works tend to have silent mixes, but this one is very silent. So much so that at first, I found it to be a negative thing. Though after some time, I grew to like that. And I mean really like it. I have mentioned before how this album is very pretty, so to speak, but I think the gentle nature of everything contributes the most to that. Nothing here is aggressive like you would perhaps think it to be, given that it's a death metal album. And I really wish more bands would do this kind of stuff since it makes the end product all the more creative, beautiful, and emotional. Speaking of creative, beautiful, and emotional, the lyrics are. They are some of my favorites in all of Alice Simard's works and add much charm to everything. The cover art also reflects the music very well, and it's very well drawn in general, so that's a neat bonus.

This one's a bit unusual compared to my other reviews, but it is one of my favorite albums of all time, and I thought throwing the usual rules I set myself while writing these out the window for once wouldn't hurt. Either way, phenomenal work by a phenomenal musician that's definitely worth checking out!

Rating: 10 out of 10