Beginning with a track simply titled "Introduction," a short instrumental track that sonically resembles the music of the slasher flicks of yore (or the keyboard parts of Necrophagia), Aleisstar Morphalite begins ominously and sets a sinister tone for the music to come. Unfortunately what comes is a well-composed, but extremely poorly executed brand of death metal which brings to mind the likes of Nocturnus (not only for its audio qualities, but for its space-inspired themes). I'd consider this a good demo; hell the songs featured on here could probably be re-recorded, re-arranged and salvaged. The main problem is that the instruments can't seem to mesh on the recording. The drums are sloppy, which throws off just about everything else, the guitar seems sluggish, and the keyboard's digital quality makes it stick out like the proverbial sore thumb on top of very analog-sounding disc. The vocals are done well, but are layered in what seems like a random manner. The talent, both in writing and in playing, is obviously present, but the recording comes off as lifeless and flat. Raw production is one thing, but these guys don't benefit from it in the way that, say, Darkthrone does. Hidden is probably an act that will become very good. On an interesting note I ended up getting this and the new Necrophagia within about a week of each other, so comparing the two definitely made this album's flaws stick out. However, not all is bad, and Killjoy fans are advised to check out Hidden if they hadn't already heard their debut.

written by Adrian Magers

Playing time: 35.01