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The Danes are coming; are you ready? Innsmouth, consisting of three virtuosos, seem to love playing technical and utterly complex Death Metal and wrapping it around Lovecraftian horror/sci-fi elements. The Shadow of Innsmouth is the band's debut album and it manages to blow many of us away with the instrumental mastery on display. If you combine the work of some of the 80's guitar shredders (Marty Friedman, Vinnie Moore, Jason Becker, Tony MacAlpine, Joey Tafolla, etc.) with the crazy technical Death Metal wankery of Necrophagist and Obscura, you will have an idea of the sounds coming from Innsmouth's musical palette. It's an interesting mix of talent, creativity, sheer madness and all kinds of extremes.

The fact that there's absolutely something a bit out of the ordinary happening on The Shadow over Innsmouth remains but some barriers are meant to be crushed and others should stay intact the way they are. Innsmouth seem intent on going through these metaphorical barricades by adopting a bit of this and a bit of that and they do a respectable job. What turn me off on this record are Kim "Dvergur" Brandhøj's attempts at squeal like a desperate pig about to be slaughtered, but to each of his own, I guess.

The Shadow over Innsmouth is out there so give it a chance and make up your own mind as to whether it moves you or not.