Hindsight is a wonderful thing. When Spheres first emerged, blinking into the expectant thrum of a vibrant death metal scene, it was met with the kind of swivel-eyed opprobrium that is normally reserved for child molesters. Despite their status as one of the genre’s finest acts, the Dutchmen never really recovered and imploded shortly thereafter, leaving a fine catalogue but a lot of unanswered questions. Today, as is so often the case with supposedly controversial albums like this, Spheres sounds like a brave but not particularly radical tangential step from a band that had been far from afraid to experiment on previous albums. What, you might wonder, was the fuss all about? Less self-consciously complex and proggy than Cynic’s Focus and certainly no more in thrall to jazz fusion than Atheist’s Elements, even the weirdest tracks – ‘Personal Energy’, ‘Demise Of Time’ and ‘Spheres’ itself being the obvious culprits – barely register on the avant-garde-o-meter. That’s not to say that Spheres isn’t remarkable in its own right. In fact, this is one of the true lost gems of ‘90s underground metal, an adventurous but assured continuation of Voivod’s late ‘80s blooming, married to creative dynamo Patrick Mameli’s aqueous jazz obsession. Finally reissued – original copies have been changing hands on eBay for silly money over the last few years – Spheres is ripe for reassessment and enjoying anew, not least by those rather short-sighted clowns who dismissed it as one giant leap too many back in 1993. The four bonus tracks – two live, two remixed – are a nice touch, too.