"And on the seventh day He listened and He heard that it was good... Not simply good, no, magisterial! So magisterial that Mea Culpa, the first song on the album, can easily hold its own with the best material from other dark metal bands. Sorry, the goalposts have just been moved!" With these words After Forever introduced themselves to the metal front in 2000; a success story that continues until 2009. On this deluxe 2 LP document of Prison of Desire, which includes 6 bonus tracks, you can hear how it all started. Prison of Desire roams through inky black Wagnerian passages, draughty cathedrals, ethereal apparitions. Singer Floor Jansens (Nightwish) classically trained soprano voice is a true revelation and can stand up as easily to a complete choir as to the deeply shrouded grunts from Sander Gommans (HDK) and Mark Jansen (Epica). Prison of Desire operates in the same twilight zone as, for instance, Nightwish, the Gathering, Therion and Within Temptation, but, at the same time, has its own unique sound. Lucidly mixed by Oscar Holleman and with singer Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) as special guest, this is one of the most impressive Dutch metal debut albums of the past few years.