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In a characteristically generous and abundant show of appreciation for both the fans and the members of Edge of Sanity, Dan Swano's two disc compilation of rarities, remixes and otherwise difficult to find tracks to mark the ten year anniversary of the remarkable Swedish band is a great treat for enthusiasts. As the title Evolution suggests, the twenty four tracks are arranged chronilogically from their inception in 1989 to a final 1999 studio "for-fun" song called "Epidemic Reign" featuring both Edge of Sanity vocalists (Swano and Robert Karlsson) in a war. The noteworthy thing about this collection is that Edge of Sanity did not take the easy way out by releasing a rehashed grab bag of previously released material. With the exception of perhaps "Until Eternity Ends" (which is in fact remixed for this release), all these songs are demo tracks and other outtakes.

Edge of Sanity's early music is honestly nothing to be very excited about. Their earliest recordings are very enthusiastic but raw and basic death metal with not a frill to be found anywhere. The first eight tracks, which include some remixed tracks from their first two albums Nothing But Death Remains and Unorthodox, are the type of songs played by excited teenagers wanting to make a scary death metal noise but still lack the talent level to become really interesting.

This, of course, was rectified in short time. By "When All Is Said" rolls around, you can hear Dan Swano's progressive rock heart and soul at work, as well as the band stretching to broaden their horizons, although covering Manowar's "Blood of My Enemies" might disqualify them. That particular cover is amusing, though Swano's clean vocals don't sound completely comfortable yet. "Elegy" is another song that showed Edge of Sanity was never completely to be pigeonholed in death metal.

The second disc is by far much more interesting to me, given I have always preferred the middle era of Edge of Sanity (The Spectral Sorrows through Crimson). By then the guitar work in the band had developed into something beyond basic riffology and added a much needed depth to the music. As the tracks on the second disc show, the band wandered through styles like a cow through a meadow. A couple amusing covers also pop up in the second disc. "I Wanna Go Home" is what Swano describes as "touring like this sucks" song and the cover of Danzig's "Mother" is just silly. Towards the end of Swano's affiliation with the band as a vocalist, you can hear the band becomes less cohesive. "Moonshine" represents the last time the band wrote anything together with Swano and it's just a flatout, breakneck hardcore song. Only one song from the post-Swano Cryptic shows up here, in remastered form.

As a whole, you can see why some of the unreleased demo tracks stayed unreleased until now. Edge of Sanity leftovers aren't necessarily great, but in a historical context such as this, they are just fine. However, the growth the band showed in a rather quick period of time is impressive and more importantly, their highly regarded releases such as Purgatory Afterglow and Crimson make their development over the years more interesting. The liner notes included detailed thoughts from Dan Swano as well as a ton of photos collected over the years. As you might already suspect, if you have any degree of interest in Edge of Sanity, Evolution is proof the Kansas Board of Education missed the boat.

Review by: Gravedaddy666

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