Alas

A

merican Alas was a project led by Erik Rutan, well known for his work in Morbid Angel and Hate Eternal. However, unlike his other works, death metal is not the focus here. The debut and only release by this effort (besides a couple of demos and splits), Absolute Purity (2001) under the membership of Erik Rutan (guitars/keyboards), Martina Hornbacher Astner (vocals), Howard Davis (drums) and Scott Hornick (bass), featured progressive dense, complex riffing, overlaid by clear female soprano vocals. The driver of this project Rutan remained entrenched in Hate Eternal and as such this project ended soon after.