This Dutch technical progressive death metalband did something pretty unusual. In September 2006 they self-released their first full-length album, called Emerging . I hear you thinking: ‘hey, that's strange, they've used the same title for two albums'. Well, they didn't. This is a re-release of the album which was released a year ago. And why does Digital-Steel give a damn about this re-release? Because they changed a lot of important things.

For a start, this edition of Emerging is released by the new Dutch metal recordlabel Rusty Cage Records. They must have had a lot of faith in these boys from Amsterdam, for re-releasing the first album of a pretty unknown band, which was released only a year before. The thing is: this re-release is pretty different than the first release. For a start, there's a different vocalist on this record. On the first version, you could hear the harsh grunt from Serge Regoor. He left the band and is replaced by Robbe Kok, who you might know from Disavowed or Arsebreed. The new vocalist has a stronger grunt and on some parts he even sings with a clean voice.

Another thing is, that the mixing and mastering has been done again, by the one and only Jochem Jacobs, guitarist of Textures. All these changes lead to a very solid debut record and therefore I think Rusty Cage Records made a good choice by re-releasing this one. Musically this album is fantastic. It had the complexity of technical death metal bands like Textures, but the progressiveness of a band like Opeth, because there's also space for easier parts and clean vocals. All together, Emerging is a fantastic record which every death metal fan who doesn't fear change and complexity must own.