Mythological Cold Towers
Remoti Meridiani Hymni
[Somber]


A definite improvement on the previous album. On "Remoti..." MCT finally begin to develop a voice of their own. Although the material here is decidedly less dark than that on "Sphere Of Nebaddon," it is much more realized and imaginatively composed and better executed. Some of the songs this time are very long, with the running time of a couple of tracks reaching up to 12-13 minutes, yet the album flows rather smoothly. The music relies considerably less on the dreary, old school death/doom riffing and an overly depressing feel, taking up a more stylish, artful and modernistic dark metal approach instead. I'd definitely say this stuff shares more commonalities with Hollenthon than with Thergothon. As before, balanced use of keyboards works well for the band. Plus, they wisely decided to draw more influences from their own culture and introduced sizable doses of tribal drumming and subtle folk touches into their music. The only problem with the album is the singer's excessive usage of pompous, spoken vocals, whose presence should have been cut by half, in my opinion at least. Otherwise this is a very exceptional work, especially since the band's label put a lot of effort into this release, what with the excellent packaging and production values.


© 2002 boris