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