Review by Jack on June 12, 2004.

It’s been pretty interesting to watch (or rather, hear) the development of Into Eternity over the last couple of years. I remember being blown away by their debut record, but the follow-up Dead Or Dreaming not really doing so much for me. I find Buried In Oblivion‘s quality swaying on the side of their debut record – indicating a pretty decent listen.

In respect to the song compositions on Buried In Oblivion, Into Eternity are still the same as they have been, and chances are that they won’t be diverting too much from this in the future. Not to say this is a bad thing, as Into Eternity have refined and developed a formula that has them locked in as one of the real favorites of the progressive and death metal scenes.

Buried In Oblivion is such a captivating record that I’m sure you’ll have a rough time to not be sucked in by it. Even avid critics of death metal and progressive metal will be swept away in a vacuum of enjoyment. Each song, each minute is as fully diverse and unique as the one before it, making for not one moment of boring listening. And with such a radical blend of genres this is a pretty tough achievement to pull off. You can just imagine the ease that many bands would have in tumbling into the oblivion (score!) of poorly executed attempts at such music. Of particular note is how the vocals are mixed on Buried In Oblivion. Now most bands would be content to have their vocals at the forefront of each track and let the music develop around the story that the vocalist tells. Not Into Eternity. On some tracks the death vocals are pushed to the forefront, whilst the clean vocals provide an alluring backdrop. Yet skip to another track and you’ll find the clean and death vocals dueling with one another for top position – making for an invoking listen.

There is a lot to like about Buried In Oblivion. For first time listeners this is the album to pickup. Nary a fault to be found. For me, however, it’s going to be tough for Into Eternity to top their debut record due to the fact that I had never experienced such a quirky and successful mix of progressive and death metal. If Into Eternity are to suffer with a less than mind-blowing score here it’s because of their debut record.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 8
Originality: 8
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Review by JD on May 4, 2014.

Death metal has been something that is the toughest to come to grips with. It can be so amazing or simply run-of-the-mill, much more than other metal genres. I have found more of the second than the first. Let’s see if North Carolina’s Hadea breaks out of the mundane mould.

Formerly named Gollum, this band resurrected itself as Hadea and continue on after losing one of their founding members (drummer: Hunter Holland) unexpectedly and then taking a real long look at what they wanted. They wanted not only to continue to play intensely powerful music, but to honour the hard fought building blocks which their fallen brother had placed… but anew.

Using a combination of pure down groove, bouts of industrial and smatterings of progressive styles added into its death metal they come at you from many angles. While the musicianship held here is somewhat suspect in many spots – the vocalist makes up for it in power and emotion that is very rarely seen. Just listen to 'Larva To Chrysalis' or 'Malicious Species' and you will hear a good vocalist (Shawn Corbett) that is just head and shoulders above the band that was playing behind them. It seems a little disconnected between the truly talented and the band that tries to keep up.

It is not a bad album, just one that is frankly uneven between the vocals and the music. I think given time for the band to grow into the power of their frontman will eventually pay off in gold but this particular album is not even close to that level. It is good, not great – but gives a glimmer of a band that will soon be equal. Just like Hadea’s name means (a scientific geological place in time) it is in transition to something better.

Rating: 7 out of 10