Illness
“Planet Paranoia”
2010
I think most any metal head is familiar with Norway and it’s storied history with black metal. Some of the most ferocious bands have come from Norway. Black metal as we know it today has been honed there over many years. Poland has seen a rise in metal as well; bands like Behemoth came blistering out of Poland. So what would happen if Norway and Poland birthed a metal band together? Maybe you have never asked yourself that question, but this band called Illness has the answer. Illness is a proficient black metal band featuring two members. One is from Norway, the other from Poland. The duo’s 2010 full-length effort titled Planet Paranoia is a commanding and substantial record full of fast and powerful playing, fierce anger, and deadly atmosphere. Gulnar has triple duty as guitar and bass player. He also provides vocals He is a terrific black metal vocalist. He has great dictation and a vicious delivery. These two guys use a lot of samples and it works well to benefit each individual song, and it never becomes too much. Everything flows very well together. They find just the right way to use samples to great effectiveness. Some songs stick closer to traditional black metal like Total Paranoia and Selftorture. These songs are made very grand in scale by epic guitar riffs and super tight double bass kicking. Other songs, like Visions And Terrified are brought to life a little more through some extremely creative sample work. The intro to Terrified sounds like a dark amusement park theme. Great stuff. Overall I think this is a very good record. It’s full of strong playing and some vicious black metal. Some of it might sound a little familiar, but through clever use of samples, Illness remedies that problem and injects just enough innovation to make Planet Paranoia quite infective.
Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Total Paranoia
3. Deadlights
4. Into the Paranoic Abyss
5. Selftorture
6. Death and War
7. Higher Level of Inhumanity
8. Visions
9. Cmentarz
10. I’m the One
11. Terrified
12. Outro
https://www.facebook.com/Illnesshorde
Members:
Carrion – Keyboards/Bass/Samples
Gulnar – Vocals/Guitars/Bass/Drum Programming/Samples
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
~Kris