Alchemist - Lunasphere Shock
Steven Cadbury - Metal Masters Mag Australia #13 1995

'We do not die'! goes the roared report at the start of the opening of Soul Return, which then emphasises this Canberran quartet's lively musical imagination by pounding through spluttering double kick death frenzies with passages of delicately spatial midnight desert twang and something approximating surf thrash. This aptly titled second Alchemist opus (check out the equally wondrous kaleidoscope of debut Jar of Kingdom) displays a tighter maelstrom of musicianship, punchier production and a more focused yet still adventurous sound. Amazing textures are produced from the two guitars, bass and drums arsenal, while axeman Adam growls, screams and recites words on all sorts of lusts for life, strange dreams and a certain fatalism (make up your own mind). All nine compositions are things of eve-changing tempos and patterns, incorporating anything from grungy psychedelia to ethnic elements (anything from primitive percussive rituals to 'far out' melodic scales, yet they burn with all the raw power of behemoths while being technically flabbergasting. In other words, obit towards Lunasphere immediately

Steven Cadbury