***The passage of time can have a curious effect on our assessment of music. Some artists or albums that seemed so vital and important at their inception age poorly, appearing dull and derivative as the decades pass. On the other hand, there are many bands—often the most experimental and innovative—that were initially under-appreciated, overlooked, or dismissed, but whose value becomes apparent only many years later. Oxiplegatz, a solo project by Alf Svensson—best known for his guitar work in Grotesque and At The Gates on their classic early releases—falls into this latter category. As At The Gates’ popularity grew following the release of With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness in 1993, Svensson felt the band was moving in a different direction than he envisioned and parted ways. His disenchantment was not limited to his former band but to the scene as a whole, which, he felt, was becoming increasingly predictable and formulaic. Bored by the familiar tropes of Satanism and evil that permeated black metal, Svensson found inspiration in the science fiction books and films he avidly consumed. His first self-released Oxiplegatz album, Fairytales, from 1994, was largely culled from unused riffs he’d written for At The Gates. Although it was, as he put it, of “uneven quality,” it set the course, stylistically and thematically, for his second album, Worlds and Worlds, which followed two years later and more fully realized Svensson’s vision for the project. While bands like Voivod and Nocturnus were premised on science fiction themes, there were...
LP $25.50
11/07/2025