Alchemist Jar of Kingdom Lethal
BMA 1993
Cathy Sexton

Well, it’s a long time since I’ve had to go out and actually pay for a CD for the purpose of a review therefore I must be fairly confident that this, Alchemist’s debut CD, was going to be worth my while. So –it doesn’t sound like they do live, the guitars are mixed down considerably, the bass is audible and the drums are right on top of everything but if you folks that are supposed to be open minded gave it a few listens you might realise that what they have done works reasonably well, if at nothing else at least it’s different. Alchemist are a band to which no real comparisons can be drawn, their ingenuity is far beyond that of most death metal bands in the world with only two songs on the whole CD bearing resemblance to anything I’d ever heard before. Strangely enough Wandering and Wondering is somewhat Flyod-ient at the start of Worlds within Worlds is slightly reminiscent of Bowie in the Ziggy days. Alchemist’s lyrics stretch the imagination to say the very least and a dozen definitions are probably possible for each track. The artwork is bizarre and seems to reflect an apparent fascination with nature, technology and the meaning of life. All the songs are joined by some strange and fascinating interludes of sound – running water, aeroplanes, trains, animals and some crazy laughter that I’m sure I’ve heard somewhere before!!?? If this magazine was boring enough to comply to the tired tradition of giving scores, this, my friends, would gain a perfect ten.

Cathy Sexton