Embryonics 90 - 98

Once their stunning fourth and fifth albums (2001's Organasm and 2003's Austral Alien) were finally given the international distribution they so rightly deserved, Alchemist have had wild-eyed addicts for their progressive space and death metal in a veritable tizzy, scrambling all across the Worldwide Web in often fruitless, exasperating, or extremely expensive searches for their hard to find first three LPs. So it's to these fans' great emotional and fiscal relief that Relapse Records eventually addressed the obsessions they'd engendered by releasing those latter-day efforts in the first place, with 2006's Embryonics 90-98: a two-disc, 28-track collection spanning the cult Australian quartet's "lost" years — thank God! All fawning and grateful weeping out of the way, one will open Embryonics to find copious liner notes describing almost every single track featured on 1993's Jar of Kingdom, 1994's Lunasphere, and 1997's Spiritech albums, as well as assorted demos, live tracks, and even the title track from 1998's Eve of the War EP — all jumbled together in non-chronological order. But because of the reliably top-notch, adventurous, and unpredictable nature of Alchemist's songwriting throughout the years and albums, this quite possibly dangerous strategy generally works in their favor — regardless of the intentional chaos inherent to many Jar of Kingdom tracks (see "Brumal" and "Worlds Within Worlds," for example) and the understandable rough edges of promising (and ultra-rare) demos "Paisley Bieurr" and "Closed Chapter." More confident and refined, Lunasphere highlights such as "Unfocused," "Yoni Kunda," and "Clot" initiate the countdown to imminent space travel and, along with the band's brilliantly executed War of the Worlds cover, "Eve of the War," helped bridge the still considerable artistic gulf to 1997's arguably still unrivaled Spiritech album. The disc where everything really came together for Alchemist, Spiritech did its title (and the group's very name) justice with lyrics that melded together the seemingly disparate disciplines of science and spirituality, even while contriving a kaleidoscopic blend of heavy metal, space, and progressive rock into music of truly alchemical imagination. Remarkable songs like the trance-inducing "Beyond Genesis," the Pink Floyd-quoting "Road to Ubar," the techno-driven "Dancing to Life," and the prog-tastic epic "Chinese Whispers" would themselves be worth the cost of admission for this double-disc bonanza. But with so much else going for it, there should be no remaining confusion about why the material on Embryonics previously had grown men wringing their hands in front of their mailboxes, awaiting costly packages shipped from distant and exotic places.