Divebomb Records took their shovel out of the warehouse and traveled to Weingarten and Baden-Württemberg in Germany to dig up the VARIX guys, who had been missing since 1995. Casting their mass resurrection and bringing up "Morbid Tribute to Distortion". It is compilation composed by the three demos of the band called "Morbus Cron" 1991, "Tribute to Fate" 1993 and "Harmonic Distortion" 1995 with their tracks remastered. There is also a surprise that is the reunion of the band to record the last track. The members are Mick Salomon (Bass), Andy Flache (Drums), Robby (Guitars) and Jogi (Vocals) and Quasi (Guitars), who bring us a Progressive Power/Trash Metal and many others influences, with a lot of originality.

The first track of the album is also the longest one. Having a little more than eight minutes, it is entitled "Fantatical Believer". The song introduction reminded me a lot of the introduction of the masterpiece "Rebellion in a Dreamland" of the master Kai Hansen from GAMMA RAY (A curious fact is that both were released the same year).  It is well crafted and brings a lot of weight to the best style of Power Metal. Talking about willpower and keeping the long traditional solos of the style. "Death of a Dreamer" brings a more epic and fancy atmosphere with paused riffs .The first two songs were taken from the last demo and it is interesting to notes that, in addition to being longer than the others, they demonstrate a more elaborate construction in structure and musicality. This shows that, the band was in full evolution, until they closed their activities.

Heavier, with very sharp vocals and a greater influence of the eighties, "Victims" and the next 3 tracks come from the "Tribute to Fate" EP, and shows that the compilation was made in descending chronology except for the last track, of course. "... and Then We Grow..." is a song that goes where the rhythm becomes faster and more intense progressively, counting with a guttural lapse that is very amusing. As it is said in a excerpt of the same song "this time is to grow" and that is exactly what happens here. "The World of Purple Ash" surprises, as they take a step a little to the side of the rest, with influences of Punk and Hardcore, making it a very interesting and different track. "Dreamgate" ends this second phase of the album returning to the environment of Epic Metal with well-stretched vocals accompanied by ceaseless guitars and drums.

The last block is far from bad, but there is a little drop compared to the previous songs, which is totally normal and justifiable since it is the debut EP. "Hellinparadise" brings a lot of Punk, Heavy Metal and something of Classic Rock, with some moments that took my mind to my teenage listening to LED ZEPPELIN. "Only Insane" and "Wargames / Mindgames" are examples of how the band manages to make giant variations thru styles, it's totally mind blowing. In a single track, they just seem to be Faith No More, Beast Boys and Iron Maiden together, but with their band personality striking, everything fits perfectly. "Fear of God", the fresh one shows that, the limbs are not rusty and that they still have a lot of creative capacity beyond evolution and more modern construction as it should be.

In the majority of cases, bands that didn´t make it, normally, it´s because it was not meant to be. This is definitely not VARIX's situation, according to Divebomb's website, subtle disagreements over the technicality of the material, and continual lineup instability are the reasons to band not keep their exceptional work. I questioned them through their Facebook page if they had plans to record something in the near future and the answer, unfortunately, was negative, except for a new "Fear of God" video that will be out soon. All that's left for now, is to take this work with great admiration as a great movie, or book without continuation (Fight Club / 1984) and hope that someday the problems sort out and they will gratify us with more of their excellent compositions. In the first paragraph I mentioned only the members of the band that appear in the official Facebook page, but in the credits I will mention the past members too, which I believe contributed somehow. Highly recommended!