Review by Jack on July 16, 2002.

It has been well the worth wait from Lux Occulta. Their new album; “The Mother and The Enemy” is undoubtedly superior than the last studio effort in “My Guardian Anger” in almost every possible way; playing ability, song composition and even production are all heads and shoulders above “My Guardian..." effort. However while that is all well and good, it means shit all if Lux Occulta doesn’t manage to lock horns for 12 rounds with the biggest names in the metal industry.

My first impressions of “The Mother and The Enemy” were very quizzical. I wasn’t really sure if Lux Occulta had gone down the right path with this new album. By this I mean Lux Occulta have chosen to include a whole host of ‘outside’ elements into their sound and forgo the traditional black metal sound that many of their contemporaries chose to take. Take the track ‘Architecture’ for example. Opening up in a grimy and sickly short tribal inspired introduction it soon cuts to a black metal barrage; ‘Architecture’ lays waste to your speakers with barbaric beats before leveling out into a calmer more progressive jazz inspired sound which changes the composition and atmosphere of the track. This would be cool if ‘Architecture’ was a one off track for the “The Mother and The Enemy”. However, the real beauty of the “The Mother and The Enemy” is that every single track takes an unexpected turn. You never-ever know what is coming up next, and even when you have listened to the album all the way through, I can almost guarantee you will find another dark surprise hiding around the murky corner.

Kudos must go to Lux Occulta for creating such a diverse and invigorating album that solicits your concentration and demands you stop what you are doing and give in to the musical vortex. Rolling from industrial to tribal to jazzy pop sequences and back to the pagan black metal that I described on the track, ‘Architecture’. “The Mother and The Enemy” does it all, and does it all so damn well that it would make it pretty much inconceivable for a metal fan to not own this great album!

Bottom Line: There is no question that “The Mother and The Enemy” is one of the most intriguing albums this year, but also has the ability to open up new nooks and crannies with every subsequent listen. Surely to be a wild card when it comes to determining the best albums of 2002.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 10
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 8.5
Originality: 10
Overall: 10

Rating: 9.4 out of 10

Review by JD on October 25, 2010.

Sweden and Heavy Metal. They go together like a thick and juicy steak with homemade Barbeque sauce and a cold beer or Rye and Coke over ice....they are just meant to be a team no matter what. Now that I have got the ball rolling in the right direction, I give to you the band called Circle Of Chaos.

Raw, melodic, heavy and unabashed that is what starts to describe this band. They remind me of quite a few bands out there. I hear the groove driven thing like Disturbed does, yet there is this weird concoction of Soulfly and Mudvein and even some elements of Canada’s Cancer Bats as well as having the power like Pantera and Megadeth as well. It is this sort of conglomeration of varying influences that when adding in the original factors the band brings to their music you get a band that most people need to take note of.

The only drawbacks is the too noticeably thin production values that run through the entire disk. The band seems that they might be way heavier than what they are portrayed on CD. I would love to see the album remastered with adding in the heaviness I suspect is there would push this band into another category that being awesome. Melodic, there are few that can match Circle Of Chaos’s they need to add in that aggressiveness that is hidden by the way it was recorded in the first place.

It is sad to think of this band coming this far, only to have their production team drop the ball yet that is what happened. It does not mean that this is a bad album. That is far from the reality. This is a pretty amazing release from a young band a better production team will be needed when the next album is set to be recorded. Enjoyable as it is, but the album does not live up to what talent the band has.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 7
Originality:8
Overall: 8.5

Rating: 8.3 out of 10