UMUR "Beyond the Unknown" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US death/thrash metal act Incubus. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in 1990. All instruments and vocals were recorded by the Howard brothers, Moyes M. Howard (drums) and Francis M. Howard (vocals, bass, guitars), at Morrisound Recordings in Tampa, Florida in June 1990. In 1999 the band were forced to change their name to Opprobrium because of the California-based alternative rock band, who held the rights to the Incubus monicker. The band never achieved the kind of success under their new monicker as they had while they were called Incubus, and they´ve sort of disappeared since then, so it´s not necessarily known by fans of the genre how huge a release "Beyond the Unknown" actually was back in 1990. Their debut full-length studio album "Serpent Temptation (1988)" didn´t provide the band with much success or recognition, but "Beyond the Unknown" changed that and put Incubus firmly on the death/thrash metal map. At least for a couple of years.

The music on the album is aggressive death/thrash metal not completely unlike the music style on "Beneath the Remains (1989)" by Sepultura and maybe with a few nods towards mid- to late eighties Slayer. The playing is organic and not always perfect, but charming nonetheless. There are both fast paced thrashy riffing and heavier riff sections in the music as well as several screaming guitar solos. Francis M. Howard has a powerful raw and fiercely aggressive vocal delivery, which is one of the greatest assets of the album.

The 8 tracks on the 38:52 minutes long album are generally of a good quality and tracks like "Massacre of the Unborn", "Certain Accuracy" and especially "Curs of the Damned Cities" even touch excellent territory. It´s not all great though and some shifts between sections don´t flow as well as they could have, and as mentioned the playing isn´t always as tight as it could have been either. The fact that the pronounciation of some of the words in the tracks sound like Francis M. Howard doesn´t speak English that well and the fact that he often stumbles over the words because the lyrics are too long for the vocal lines are also issues that drag my rating down a bit. So it should speak volumes about the quality of the great things on the album, that I still rate "Beyond the Unknown" with a 3.5 star (70%) rating. This might be a flawed release, but it´s still greatly enjoyable.

UMUR Serpent Temptation (1996 version) is a re-release of the US death/ thrash act Incubus debut full-length studio album from 1988. The re-release version was released in 1996 by Radiation Records/ Nuclear Blast Records. The 1996 version of Serpent Temptation is not just a re-release though as the album features re-recorded vocal tracks, revised lyrics and new cover artwork.

Nothing in the music besides the vocals have been changed ( well some of the lyrics too, but the instrumental part of the album is untouched), so the music style on the album is still old school thrash metal with death metal influences. The re-recorded vocals are a great improvement over the weak vocals on the original version and drag the album even more into a death metal direction. It´s a bit of a shame Incubus didn´t opt to re-record some of the instrumental parts too. The drums could have prospered greatly from a re-recording.

Personally I think re-releases with re-recorded changes are seldom good ideas, mostly because I think original recordings ( for better or worse) should be left untouched. On the other hand, there are some releases that actually gets better with re-recorded changes and the 1996 version of Serpent Temptation is certainly one of those. I gave the original version a 2.5 rating. I´ll raise that to a 3 star rating for the re-release version.

UMUR Serpent Temptation is the debut full-length studio album by US death/ thrash act Incubus. The album was released in 1988 by Brutal Records. The album was re-released in 1996 with re-recorded vocal tracks, revised lyrics and new cover artwork.

The music on the album is thrash metal with a few hints towards death metal. Think early Sepultura or early Kreator and you´re just about there. Listening to the vocals on this original version of the album, it´s obvious why the band chose to re-record them for the 1996 re-release. The vocals are raw and kind of raspy as the style/ genre requires, but they are pretty badly performed. They are without punch and it´s quite a shame as the rest of the music is actually pretty good old school thrash metal. The production doesn´t help on my overall impression of the album either. Again the sound lacks punch and the drums have a kind of odd sound to them ( something that´s unbelievable they didn´t fix on the re-release).

Most people became aware of Incubus through their 2nd album Beyond The Unknown (1990) which added a lot more death metal influences to the band´s sound. So it´s probably a bit unfair to review Serpent Temptation in a retrospective fashion, but I can´t help compare the two albums in terms of quality. And there is a major difference. Compared to Beyond The Unknown, Serpent Temptation simply fall flat on it´s face and be warned that even though you are a fan of Beyond The Unknown, you won´t necessarily find listening pleasure in Serpent Temptation ( at least not in the original version).

So all in all Serpent Temptation isn´t a revelation and honestly it´s a below average thrash metal album even for 1988. Maybe I´m being too nice but a 2.5 star rating is warranted.