This album is significantly interesting as it sucks you up in it's variety of sounds. You could listen to it straight through several times and still continue to find new things about it. It has a myriad of different influences on it's sound. From the blackened death metal vocals style to the melodic death metal with hints of death doom in the structure of the individual songs. Not that the album is an immitation. Far from it. This doesn't delve into the muddy pool of over used gothenburg death metal sound. What grabs you most about this release is the atmosphere. And to go into that I suppose I'll need to go into detail about the songs themselves.
Crippled was a perfect start to the album. A simple start off with tremolo picking and piano work cruising it's way around the percussion which continues just long enough before launching into some solidly heavy and thick palm muting. The keyboardist uses his instrument to create a dark and pervasive feel, much like the sound surrounding My Dying Bride's Vast Choirs on their original demo. The chorus brings back the tremolo picking with high screamed vocals crying out. The nice thing about this song is that each time the verse starts it gets heavier. The bridge straight after the second verse is catchy, which honestly is the whole feel of the song. This continues even when the bridge stretches into a simple solo and then works itself to a very gentle slowdown. What comes next is in my opinion the best bit of the entire song. A drawn out scream, some more lead guitar work that eventually leads into a particular pattern that becomes mimicked by the piano that then becomes the lead instrument. The piano manages to carry the song all the way to the end beautifully capturing a melodic and well crafted ending.
Regeneration starts off with a fast aggressive blackened melodic death feel. Fast riffing, lots of tremolo and high vocals with some growls thrown in inbetween. A good way to describe this song is if Crimson Moonlight simplified themselves and then changed their tone. About two minutes in it slows down to give you time to catch your breath. It's a song made of sections rather than using a stereotypical song structure. It doesn't use verses and choruses but rather goes from one section to the next. You won't hear the same thing done repetitavely which was cleverly done. Half way through the song it speeds right back up again, letting the lead guitar do some more work this time rather than both guitars just thrashing out the sound. What did surprise me was when the clean vocals made an appearance. The clean vocals didn't last long but were done well. The song ends with some eerie guitar work before finally coming to a close.
In Pursuit of Divinity was definitely my favourite track. The song launches off with some guitar riffing which somes to a bit of a death doom feel with it's merging atmosphere of keyboard, guitar, drumming and drawn out growl work. The vocals are the most intense bit of this area of the song as they don't let up, continually growling out the lyrics amongst the organ style keyboard work and surrounding guitars. Once again I was reminded of a moderately less ferocious My Dying Bride from their Vast Choirs demo. Half way through the song it calms down to some incredibly well crafted melodic work from both the keyboard and the guitars as well as the drums. Three and a half minutes in the song completely throws itself into a whole new atmosphere of passion. This turns itself into upbeat guitar lines and more aggressive vocals thrown into the mix.
Fallen Celestials follows the general mood of the album. Heavy melodic death metal with doom influence punctuated with melodic intervals. The song is more down tempo in general than the rest of the songs. Not to say it doesn't have fast sections, but they're swallowed more by the doom influence which presides over this particular song. Once again there's another melodic section which happens half way through the song which then works itself back into atmospheric heavy guitar work. By the end of the song we have both undistorted guitar melodies working amongst spoken word vocals, distorted guitar and keyboard lingering to the end. I personally found that this song was more of a background song. Better taken in if listening to it while doing other things.
Plains of Desolation had a slightly martial sound to it as it starts off with snare creating a marching beat while the bass pedals along next to it. As in other songs the other instruments launch in next to each other filling out the spectrum of the song itself. The keyboard plays a similar role in this song as it does in Crippled. Being a key piece of the melody while allowing the other instruments to accompany it. Over all the song was however my least favourite from the album. The ending of the song struck me as rather abrupt for the ending of such a well constructed and melodic album.
Over all. It's a well constructed album with tastefully done riffs, well layered atmospheres and sounds. It's a release you'd recommend to your friends looking for good, decent metal which takes you in and offers you an enjoyable 31 minutes of playing time.
Band Merch
Crippled was a perfect start to the album. A simple start off with tremolo picking and piano work cruising it's way around the percussion which continues just long enough before launching into some solidly heavy and thick palm muting. The keyboardist uses his instrument to create a dark and pervasive feel, much like the sound surrounding My Dying Bride's Vast Choirs on their original demo. The chorus brings back the tremolo picking with high screamed vocals crying out. The nice thing about this song is that each time the verse starts it gets heavier. The bridge straight after the second verse is catchy, which honestly is the whole feel of the song. This continues even when the bridge stretches into a simple solo and then works itself to a very gentle slowdown. What comes next is in my opinion the best bit of the entire song. A drawn out scream, some more lead guitar work that eventually leads into a particular pattern that becomes mimicked by the piano that then becomes the lead instrument. The piano manages to carry the song all the way to the end beautifully capturing a melodic and well crafted ending.
Regeneration starts off with a fast aggressive blackened melodic death feel. Fast riffing, lots of tremolo and high vocals with some growls thrown in inbetween. A good way to describe this song is if Crimson Moonlight simplified themselves and then changed their tone. About two minutes in it slows down to give you time to catch your breath. It's a song made of sections rather than using a stereotypical song structure. It doesn't use verses and choruses but rather goes from one section to the next. You won't hear the same thing done repetitavely which was cleverly done. Half way through the song it speeds right back up again, letting the lead guitar do some more work this time rather than both guitars just thrashing out the sound. What did surprise me was when the clean vocals made an appearance. The clean vocals didn't last long but were done well. The song ends with some eerie guitar work before finally coming to a close.
In Pursuit of Divinity was definitely my favourite track. The song launches off with some guitar riffing which somes to a bit of a death doom feel with it's merging atmosphere of keyboard, guitar, drumming and drawn out growl work. The vocals are the most intense bit of this area of the song as they don't let up, continually growling out the lyrics amongst the organ style keyboard work and surrounding guitars. Once again I was reminded of a moderately less ferocious My Dying Bride from their Vast Choirs demo. Half way through the song it calms down to some incredibly well crafted melodic work from both the keyboard and the guitars as well as the drums. Three and a half minutes in the song completely throws itself into a whole new atmosphere of passion. This turns itself into upbeat guitar lines and more aggressive vocals thrown into the mix.
Fallen Celestials follows the general mood of the album. Heavy melodic death metal with doom influence punctuated with melodic intervals. The song is more down tempo in general than the rest of the songs. Not to say it doesn't have fast sections, but they're swallowed more by the doom influence which presides over this particular song. Once again there's another melodic section which happens half way through the song which then works itself back into atmospheric heavy guitar work. By the end of the song we have both undistorted guitar melodies working amongst spoken word vocals, distorted guitar and keyboard lingering to the end. I personally found that this song was more of a background song. Better taken in if listening to it while doing other things.
Plains of Desolation had a slightly martial sound to it as it starts off with snare creating a marching beat while the bass pedals along next to it. As in other songs the other instruments launch in next to each other filling out the spectrum of the song itself. The keyboard plays a similar role in this song as it does in Crippled. Being a key piece of the melody while allowing the other instruments to accompany it. Over all the song was however my least favourite from the album. The ending of the song struck me as rather abrupt for the ending of such a well constructed and melodic album.
Over all. It's a well constructed album with tastefully done riffs, well layered atmospheres and sounds. It's a release you'd recommend to your friends looking for good, decent metal which takes you in and offers you an enjoyable 31 minutes of playing time.
Band Merch
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