When you hear 'Portals to Uphobia', I bet that the first word that comes to your mind is "Sweden". As much as the music signals, that the band might come from my lovely neighbour country, in fact Detonation come from Holland.

In some other dimension's time-space continuum this could have been Dark Tranquillity's follow-up to their classic 'The Gallery' (1995). Just check out 'Structural Deceit', a masterpiece of technical melodiousness, and melancholic 'Solitude Reflected'. But, this also kicks ass, something you'd expect from an Osmose band anyway. The pace of the music is mainly fast, and blastbeats aren't a rarity. However, the band knows how to animate their creations with tempo and velocity changes, which function very well, and there's quite a lot to be found in many a song. The title song is the most brutal specimen of Detonation, and on the other end of their spectrum stands aforementioned 'Solitude Reflected'. Detonation aren't a Dark Tranquillity clone. The title track is more At The Gates, 'Chaos Banished' has some Opeth overtones, spruce instrumental 'Lost Euphoria Part III' including Spanish guitars among a lot of things and a bit of Evergrey style Solitude Reflected. So, it's pretty much Swedish sounding extreme metal with fantastic melodic qualities. The only slip-up is 'Beyond the Margin', which sounds filler material. 'The Source to Delve' saves something, but the album ends on the weaker note.

Playing is of a high level, especially agile yet powerful drumming is a joy to listen to. Expect a lot of nice drum tricks. Other instrumentalists don't leave much behind. Growled vocals are in vein of Mikael Stanne, so there's some variety in them, plus as the lyrics are personal, also it can be heard. They are okay, especially when they are performed by a guitarist. I have no bad word about the production, which kicks arse. It's well balanced and airy, but rawish and heavy enough. Fine Niklas Sundin artwork decorates the album (no shit, another Dark Tranquillity link, heh). There's a multimedia part including "making of" video, plus band information.

If you feel disenchanted with later Swedish bands' output, such as In Flames and Arch Enemy, I encourage you to check out Detonation ('Into Sulphur I Descend', 'Structural Deceit' and 'End of Sight, End of Fears' are near-perfect songs). This is a good quality release for the fans of melodic yet brutish metal, which was so hot in Sweden a few years ago.

Rating: 8- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
05/27/2006 20:48