Extol - Mesmerized

This release is a must have for all Extol fans. It may be an EP, but it clocks in at over 34 minutes, which is just as long as some band's full lengths. It starts off with "Enthralled", a new song recorded in 1999. It's classic Extol with heavy guitars and wicked sounding death/black vocals. Track 2, "The Prodigal Son" is probably my favorite on the disc, if you can really pick a favorite. This one was a bonus cut on the Japenese version of "Burial." The next song "Storms of Disillusions" is an unreleased song from 1997. It goes back and forth with growling and clean vocals. These trade-offs work great just like they did in "Reflections of a Broken Soul." All three songs would have fit perfectly on the "Burial" album. On the last 3 songs, the album takes a drastic turn. They are all 3 industrial remixes. The first 2 by Sanctum and the last by Raison D' Etre. Both of Sanctum's, "Burial" and "Renhetens Elv", sound awesome. With distorted vocals and guitars, tons of odd noises, and gothic sounding parts, Sanctum and Extol combine to give us some killer industrial. Some musical parts in the "Burial" remix sound like they come from Sanctum's "Lupus in Fabula" album, but this does nothing but help the song. Raison D' Etre does a great job as well on "Work of Art." The only problem is that Extol is basically muted under the eerie keyboards so you can't even tell it's an Extol song. It pleases these ears though. The only down points would be that there was no lyric sheet included, and the drums still lacked the punch that they did on the "Burial" album. The production overall though is very good. In all, this is one awesome CD and a great choice to add to your collection. (Review by Matt)

Endtime Productions released Extols "Mesmerized" ep in 1999. This 6 song outing is different and I have mixed emotions on it. The production seems like they were figuring out what recording is all about. The first song "Enthralled" is pretty cool for the most part. Use of good time signatures flow through this song with ease and it keeps the listeners attention quite well. The vocals are very irritable to me though. One thing I had a hard time liking about these guys were their vocals. They are harsh, but they seem to lack something. The second song is also very cool! I think this is probably my favorite Extol song made. This grasps every angle in metal imagineable and is shown that it can be done. The listening attention is 100% on this! The drums are very cool and the changes are superb. But I still think this guy needs vocal lessons. Track 3 is "Storms of Disillusions" and I really don't care for these vocals either. It starts off with clean vocals that seem to be strained and switches to death metal vocals with layered vocals of the clean style. I'm not a fan of either vocal style the way they are used. The music in a general aspect is cool though and I think they were experimenting quite a bit with this. Track four is a remix of "Burial" by Sanctum. This is pure garbage!!!!!!! How could they do this? Ugghhh...I hate noise bands and industrial bands to begin with and this just ruined it! Track 5 is another dumb Sanctum remix if "Renhetens Elv" and again this reeks of raw sewage!!!!!! I can't believe these songs were so destroyed in a manner that they are! I can't even begin to explain what stupidity this is! Track 6 is a Raison D' Etre remix and this is the worst of them all! I can turn on the radio to a station with no music to hear this! Why say it's a remix? I am so disgusted! (Review by Biff Bartholemew)