Antidote - Total (1994)

I am not an opponent of change in a band's sound, provided that change reflects a willingness to grow, evolve, and improve. I'm sure Finland's Antidote thought they were doing those very things when they released Total. No stranger to horrible album art, they have outdone themselves with this one...which looks like some reject that Triumph or Journey decided not to use after all, or some lost fragment of 70s modern disco deco. As for the sound, the band comes across as more mature on this album. More restrained. Even laid back. But as we are about to discover, this is not always a positive, especially when you are following up an album like The Truth, which lived and died on its viral accessibility and pounding steel rhythms.

The biggest difference on this record would be the vocals, which are still Nino Laurenne, but he's lost a lot of the low end grizzle that he used on The Truth. Most of the singing on the album is a laconic, melodic mid to higher range, but he'll still bust out the howls, only here they sound more like Peavey of the German legends Rage. There are still good riffs to be found on Total, and in fact, a few of them are excellent. But I really wish that the band had cut loose more in the production here, because a few of the songs sound a little too sterile and polished, and might have benefited from some chaos.

In retrospect, "Cold" may not have been the best way to start the album. It's a pretty boring track, not putting the band's best foot forward. Later, when Laurenne emits some of his siren-like Rage wails, the track begins to warm up, and the solo section is decent. But the major riffs driving the verse sound far too restrained, and the drums sound too poppy and lifeless. "Woe Betide Them" is more successful, opening with a playful, folksy melody that transforms into a Prong-ish thrash groove. The drums crash a little more, and Nino's got some edge to his voice here like the debut album. The chorus has some great backing vocals, and the solos are great, before the band busts back into that opening melody. Easily one of the Total highlights. It is unfortunate, then, that the next track, "Life is a Lie", is a garbled mess. It starts off with some screeching guitar feedback, then a deep rhythm that might have worked if they built it into the drum groove, yet they fuck around with it and we are treated to another of the band's decent dual melodies, before falling apart into a rhythm that sounds part cheap Pantera garbage and part Prong groove. Nino's vocals range from Peavey to Hetfield on this one, and while there are a few interesting points later in the track, like a nice, easy lead and a cool vocal/backing vocal interplay bridge, the song could have been a lot better with the weaker elements chopped out.

"Rain" crawls along at a doomed gait, and if Nino didn't often belt out a brash vocal line here or there, I would hardly be able to tell this is the same band, but the song does have a decent melody in place of a solo, and it's far from the worst here. "Multiverse" enters with the same, slowed pace as "Rain", but the riff here is very much like a slowed Metallica, as are the verse vocals, and the rest of the track is pretty interesting, pensive and drawn out thrash metal which definitely supports the title. "My Million Years" has Pete Peltonen plodding below another, basic thrash chug that transforms into some churning grooves and then a nice, old school metal riff below a melodic guitar. Basically, whenever the track lays off the far too simplified central chug, it gets quite good, like the screaming guitars in the distance at the 3:00 mark. The rhythms that introduces "You Medicate" sounds like outtakes from The Black Album, but the song picks up and it's another of the better pieces on the album.

"Slowmotion" uses a guitar like an air raid siren over a groove metal rhythm, then breaks into a bizarre verse with Peltonen's bass wandering about, briefly summoning up a comparison to Mekong Delta. The bass work and the guitar effects throughout the track are pretty engaging, especially at 2:45, but the rhythms below are mediocre. "Life Recall" has another Beg to Differ-style rhythm that chugs along into a hardcore groove, and Laurenne again uses some of his Hetfield tones. As a whole, the song is unusual, but one of the worst here. "Into the Dreamside" competes with "Woe Beside Them" for 'best of show', with some emotional vocals similar to the first album, and great melodic guitar work throughout.

Total is an hour of peaks and valleys, as Antidote seems to struggle for an identity. There are many interesting ideas, and this album could be labeled 'progressive thrash' without offense, but not all of them succeed. I believe that there are enough worthwhile moments for a fan of The Truth to at least listen once, but the album is less cohesive than that predecessor, an inferior product in all categories. If this had been an EP, with "Woe Beside Them" and "Into the Dreamside", and the rest of the songs chopped up and reconfigure into two more, good songs, I would give this a passing grade, but as it stands, it just isn't something I'll revisit.

Highlights: Woe Beside Them, Into the Dreamside

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]