Iscariota - Cosmic Paradox

ISCARIOTA - Cosmic Paradox (DEFENSE Records CD 2020)

Recently I received an album, which I haven’t heard probably since 1997 or 1998, so yeeeaarrrsss ago. And which I completely forgot about, even if later the band’s name popped up here and there several times. I am writing about 1995's "Cosmic Paradox" by Polish band Iscariota, which has just been exhumed from the abyss of oblivion thanks to Defense Records. I'm not gonna lie that I loved this album in the old days or that it was a highlight of the Polish death / thrash metal scene. It wasn't. But it's always interesting to listen to such albums after all these years and see if they survived the test of time and if they still have anything to offer.  

"Cosmic Paradox" was recorded in 1994 and it offered rather common for its time thrash / death metal, which had equal influence from bands such as Death or Dragon as it had from Metallica. If you take a listen to a song like "Night Sailors" then these influences are just as clear as the summer sky. Over 25 years later this music still works well. Sure, "Cosmic Paradox" does sound very archaic and "old", of course it does, it couldn't sound anything different. But if you ask me if this album will have anything to offer to people, who will find it in 2021, then my answer is "yes". It really is a solid portion of music, Iscariota did compose some enjoyable tunes here, I can sincerely say that some of these riffs sound awesome and even if the recording itself lacks a bit of that powerful aspect of the best death metal of early 90's, there's still enough good music to enjoy. I especially like that aggressive aspect of the music, combined with a bit of melody and technical frenzy. All in all, it is just very fine and pleasant piece of death / thrash. 

OK, I gave some positive words about "Cosmic Paradox", but what’s wrong with this CD? Well, first I need to mention the song called "Lilith", absolute piece of garbage for me, where Iscariota tried to sound like Metallica or like that fuckin band Hunter (which is a band I simply despise). Vocal wise this song is simply a disaster, the guy behind mic cannot sing at all and just failed ("Cudowny głos Lilith, jadowity szept co noc..." and you can hear me puking!). Musically it's also just not interesting semi-fuckin-useless-ballad. By the way, I guess that along with Metallica, one can compare it also to Kat. But it's not even half as good. 

And the other thing I don't like so much is the "Glodgad" demo from 1993, which was added to "Cosmic Paradox" as a bonus. Musically it's in the same vein, sure, maybe just more thrashing and certainly with rawer production. But I somehow don’t like it so much, especially vocals with Polish lyrics sound awful to me.  

All in all, "Cosmic Paradox", with the exception of that one song, is a solid album and it still sounds not bad at all. I quite enjoyed it. You can treat it as an interesting archaeological finding.. By the way, Iscariota is still active nowadays, but that’s all I can say, as I am not interested in the music they play nowadays at all. 

Verdict: 65/100