Project bands – or side projects, put together with some friends and fellow musicians, are always something that may catch your immediate attention, depending on which musicians are involved with them – and whether there’s even some known names behind them, right? MAGENTA HARVEST is such a project act (or side project, whatever) that made me curious about them anyway because the band line-up features a pretty impressive bunch of musicians that have been testing the waters in such bands as FINNTROLL, MYGRAIN, CHTHONIAN, …AND OCEANS, THE INIQUITY DESCENT, etc., just to name a few. So, my instant thought pretty much about them was like there must be something worth checking out in them. And no, I didn’t go straight to the wrong direction with this assumption either: MAGENTA HARVEST indeed do have a good musical concept going on "Volatile Waters", which happens to be this particular group’s 10-track debut album too. Musically we can talk about a groovy, versatile and kinda detailed in textures, melodic and dark Death Metal that just does not only go into one ear – and come out from the other, without leaving any positive traces in a listener’s mind. HYPOCRISY may be the first name for many being mentioned in a fair comparison to MAGENTA HARVEST – and it’s no denying Mr. Tägtgren’s troops tend to crawl in mind every now and then when giving the album a concentrated spin. Then I would lift up another Swedish band name in comparison to MAGENTA HARVEST that only (and sadly) released one album in 2000 – that particular name in question being DOMINION CALIGULA, and their somewhat excellent "A New Era Rises" record. Similar doomy Black Metal type of elements can also be spotted out of MAGENTA HARVEST’s songs, making "Volatile Waters" a tad better sounding album than your average Death Metal record really, so to speak. Once again, vocalist Matthias Lillmåns’ (FINNTROLL, CHTHONIAN, etc.) vocal delivery is darn impressive on this release, full of a sort of primal viciousness and vigorous anger, supported by the rest of his troops’ precise yet positively idea-rich and partly innovative playing. There’s nothing on "Volatile Waters" actually that would rise hair up on my skin for the sign of utter irritation or tediousness, so feel free to draw your own important conclusions out of the lines written above. More can be found here: www.facebook.com/magentaharvest, label: www.inverse.fi