The Summary Judgment Reviews:

	Title: Futile Artist: Rapture Label: Relapse Records Release Date: 11/13/01 Rating: 5 Skulls
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Reviewed by Requiem (3/27/02):
Talk about buried treasures. I think I've just unearthed one. Why people are not raving about Rapture is beyond me. Besides the fact that they are blatantly unoriginal, this is hands down amazing stuff. I think Finland may be taking Sweden's metal throne because these guys are just another amazing addition to the Finnish powerhouse of metal bands. I just had to check Katatonia's Brave Murder Day to see who copied who. I was almost hoping Rapture were undiscovered innovators but that's not the case here. Three years later Rapture delivered their rendition of Katatonia's finest from their death metal glory days. And with the Swedes taking on their more melodic nature, we see Rapture live on the melodic death style left in the dust. Granted I love almost all Katatonia albums, but it's nice to see someone doing this style as good as it's done here.
If you haven't caught my drift yet, this IS Brave Murder Day and possibly even better. It's got the same driving force and the same feel as far as tempos go. The vocals are downright deep and dirty death metal to the 10th degree with the addition of some somber clean vocals to accentuate the clean and more tranquil moments. The same guitar formula goes with the guitars having approximately three layers (one driving rhythm, one up front melodic guitar and one atmospheric track buried slightly in the mix). The outcome? One album of melodic death metal suited for nothing smaller than large size arenas. Although there is a lot of Katatonia sound in there, also present is an overwhelming amount of feel from the school of Opeth and even any age Anathema. I couldn't pick a better combination to stick in a musical blender. The production gives the album the huge sound it so righteously deserves. Fucking brilliant.
The intro brings us right into a slow and psychedelic groove, giving hint to some possible Floyd worship. Followup track "To Forget" is equally as brilliant with the beautiful harmonies permeating everything around them, while maintaining a laid back groove. "This is Where I Am" picks up the pace with a more Iron Maiden feel in terms of the notch up in speed. Where Rapture differs from the rest is their love for the use of clean guitars in their sound. "Someone I (Don't) Know" best exemplifies this and also showcases the vocalist's ability to sing in an impressive clean style along with his low death grunts. Every track has an almost priceless value to it.
In the end, I'm drooling over it all. My first listen weeks back made me think of it as a ripoff effort, but still retaining some value. Upon closer evaluation, this is a shiny undiscovered gem in the melodic metal world. The harmonies are breathtaking and the overall vibe brings out the sorrowful and emotional moments that are often overlooked in music. Those who are into any of the albums by the aforementioned bands better seek this out. Thank god Relapse made this more accessible to the world as it needs to be (this was originally released on Spikefarm Records in '99). I was going to deduct a skull for plagiarism, but this just has too much brilliance on its own accord to do such a thing. Everyone needs this album. And Rapture needs to record a followup that can stand up to this and capture their somber arena death metal sound in the live setting.

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