Mike Browning a former member of Morbid Angel, providing drums and vocals for their infamous opus Abominations of Desolation. He being also a founding member of Nocturnus providing drums and vocals respectively. In 1999 Mike Browning formed After Death, utilizing keyboards as was done when he was still a member of Nocturnus and which they continued after he left. After Death has released several demos and an EP leading up to this released (the EP had remained unreleased until this compilation).

Here the music is relatively simplistic in nature, a different take on what Nocturnus had been practicing but the keyboards make up for the simplicity such as the classic piano intro before the bass introduces the beginning riff in "The Star Chamber of Isis" or the old horror movie tone of the intro to "Astral Staircase". Although the keyboards are not limited to intros, they are also responsible for the atmosphere on every track; sometimes even taking lead before the riffs are able to do so such as in "The Calling / Lords of The Black Path".

But After Death's sound is not entirely dominated by keyboards, riffing is still centerfold and furthers the atmosphere as well as driving the music. One such example is the opening riff to "0=2" it reminded me a bit of Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" which in of itself really does describe the riff perfectly.

The vocals are quite puzzling, the majority see Browning's spoken shout, a far cry from his blackend bark on the aforementioned Morbid Angel album. But it is intelligent and does nothing but complement the music, I think of him more of an robed wanderer; divulging blasphemous tails to all who listen.

His vocals are the most constant, being the lead but the backing vocals very greatly (he does however, chant and preform spoken word as well and in addition he lets out a wonderful scream featured on "Temple Of Cthulhu" that reminded me of the old days). For example, everything up till Secret Lords of the Chamber Below EP (i.e. the first four tracks) feature back up vocals by Lisa Lombardo and they are fantastic. she moans, groins, snarls, and chants in addition to singing clean; it's really too bad she left the metal underground, I would have really looked foreword to future releases featuring her. The aforementioned EP features low guttural growls by Jessy Jolly it seems from looking at the booklet.

The lyrics lean more toward Egyptian mythology with some blasphemy and Cthulhu mythos (as seen in "Jesus Will Weep Again" and "Temple Of Cthulhu") but think not that they way they use egyptian mythology as Nile does, it is some what different as you can see in this exert from "The Star Chamber Of Isis":

'I come into the presence, of the Ancient Gods. I ask them to bestow on me, their wisdom, power and seed.

I feel their energy pulsing, in my heart and veins. As the sleeping serpent, travels to my brain.'

While it's not a complete far cry from what Nile sports it is still rather different.

All in all a most welcome release, being it one of the few death metal bands to utilize keyboards correctly (Graveside would be another to come to mind, but they are completely different band all together) I would recommend this to any fan of Nocturnus. Highlights would include everything excluding "Astral Staircase" while it starts rather interesting afterwords it stays in one place much too long before moving on.