By now, you should have already noticed that I’m a fan of Dan Nelson and I’m proud to say that Dan is a friend of this site. You will find out more about that soon on your favorite site on the net, Dose of Metal.
Sadly, there’s not much of his work available on the net, or anywhere else for that matter. The closest thing to an album, that you can find anywhere, is Inside Hollow’s album from 2006, called ‘The Lazarus Pit.’ I’m not sure you can call it an album though. Judging from its’ lenght, I’d say it’s an EP. Check it out for yourself, because you can listen to it in its’ entirety on MySpace.
I’ve been listening to said album for the past two days, pretty much non-stop. Check out what I think of ‘The Lazarus Pit’ after the jump.
Inside Hollow – The Lazarus Pit
1. Brooding – 04:13
2. Taken – 04:09
3. Freedoms Wings – 03:54
4. Green – 04:45
5. Systematic – 03:32
6. Pink Skeleton – 05:14
First off about the picture above, I’m not sure if this is the actual cover of this CD. You can barely find any information about ‘The Lazarus Pit’ anywhere online, so I just took one picture from Inside Hollow’s MySpace page, that looked the closest to an album cover to me.
The album starts off with ‘Brooding,’ a very catchy song, with a catchy chorus and main riff. And that best sums up the sound of this album. It’s very melodic, uplifting and just a hell of a lot of fun. Is it Groove Metal, Thrash Metal or just good old Heavy Metal? That’s hard to judge. I’d say it is groovy but has a lot of key features of Thrash Metal. Overall, I’d classify it as Heavy Metal though, mainly because of Nelson’s vocals.
The next song, ‘Taken,’ is definitely my favorite song of this CD and it’s the song I’ve know the longest. I wrongly attributed the song to Devilsize, before Dan set me right in the interview he gave us not too long ago. I’ve first heard it online when Dan was announced as the new singer of Anthrax and I always fell back onto it to get myself pumped up for the then-upcoming ‘Worship Music.’ This is what I wanted Nelsonthrax to sound like because this song is awesome and easily one of my favorite songs of the past 5 years. Just listen to the chorus and if you don’t think it’s awesome, I’ll have to apply a Full-Nelson on you.
‘Freedoms Wings’ follows pretty much the same formula as ‘Brooding’ and ‘Taken,’ and ‘Green’ is the first surprise on this album/EP/whatever. It’s the softest song on this CD and showcases the band’s diversity. “You don’t know me, you know nothing at all” Haven’t we all felt like that at times in our life at some moment? ‘Systematic’ is easily the heaviest song on the album, with just the production holding the song back a bit. ‘The Lazarus Pit’ closes with ‘Pink Skeleton,’ a groovy and, may I say, funky song. Musically, it kind of reminds me off Slipknot’s first album/demo ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.’, at least the guitar sound in the verses.
Overall, this is a very strong debut and I enjoyed every song. The issue I have with this CD, is the production that doesn’t do the songs justice. It’s sharp and clear but it needs way more power and, most of all, bass. That’s to be expected though, as I’m sure the band didn’t have a huge budget when recording ‘The Lazarus Pit.’ Ironically, I’d recommend this album to fans of Anthrax. When I’m listening to this album, I can’t help but wonder just how ‘Worship Music,’ you know the original version, sounds. I’d kill to hear it but this CD fills the gap, until we get new music from Dan Nelson, be it with Blackgates or Inside Hollow.
