• Mortemia - Misere Mortem (2010)

     

    The debut album of "Mortemia" is a quite epic and spiritual album conceived by Morten Veland from "Tristania" and "Sirenia". Even if there are some harsh vocals in every song, they are not overwhelming and the sound focuses on majestic keyboard sounds and a choir composed by two men and two women that domiante many passages and most of the quiet atmospheric and medieval choruses that remind me of spiritual ambient bands such as "Era" and "Enigma". The gothic touch of the record is maintained by the dominating keyboards and the mostly simplistic, almost industrial guitar riffs that are not outstanding but fit very well to the desired atmosphere. A few solos here and there add some traditional metal elements to the spiritual ambient influences and the symphonic gothic foundations. I would like to underline the absence of dominating female lead vocals which is very positive to me. I think that this absence adds something unique and refreshing to this record which makes it stand out of the high number of symphonic gothic metal publications in the last two decades.

    The album itself is very coherent and no track truly stands out as they all have similar topics, similar sounds and similar structures. Even though the general sound of the album is diversified and intriguing, I think that the single songs don't vary very much and a few more experiments, a little bit more courage and a higher amount of creativity would have made a more gripping record out of it. But mabe that simply wasn't the goal of the artist and he wanted to create the album as it finally is: a very relaxing and spiritual album without overwhelming bombast, creative surprises or distractions in form of energizing solos, complex structures or longer or shorter tracks. This is an album that works well as a background music but could also fit to any epic movie score.

    In the end, we have a short and sweet epic and spiritual soundtrack for calm hours and moments of tranquilty. Personally, I would listen to this music in my car while driving in a mysty morning through rather isolated landscapes in the hills with a few castles or small monuments as the combination would perfectly fit in my opinion. This album is surely not very heavy and not suited for most of the metal maniacs out there in the world as it focuses on a very particular atmosphere and a rather small audience in which I would include myself and that's why I give a rather positive rating in here. But even though this record is rather repetitive and way too short, such a low rating in here is not justified as this is still a rather good or at least mediocre effort no matter how you take it

     

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