Finnish melodic death metallers Mors Principium Est are back with the 6th album in their already pretty strong catalouge – having their older albums being praised all over the world and seen to be on the same level as the pioneers in the genre. Since the past album, there has been a line up change – guitarist Kevin deciding to leave the band, entering Andy Gillion who has already been writing some material, and now, after some time, the album is here.
The album opens with a rather dramatic intro – it starts off with a doomsday kind of vibe too it, before pouring into a more dreamy kind of setting. The whole thing is very cinematic, and before you know it it launches you right into the opening track “Reclaim the Sun” which shows off a bit more aggression stylewise than what the intro would perhaps suggest. I find the song being rather pleasant – not supergood, but not bad either. Decent opener! It has some magical arrangements in the middle that I’m pretty much living for. “Masquerade” is the second song of the album, and I fell in love with the rhythm of the verses on an instant. I have a thing for funky rhythms, most specially when added to a metal song.
“Into the Dark” delivers the epicness an album like this needs, with it’s fairly bombastic arrangements, followed by the more melancholic “The Drowning” which I found to be a very very pleasant song actually, growing rather fond of it the more I hear it! “Death is the Beginnig” continues on in the melancholic vibe, being a duet with a unnamed female vocalist. Perhaps some of you will kill me for not recognizing the voice, but I really don’t! I do love the arrangements though.
Another thing that caught my interest a whole lot more with this song in particular is the fact that the heartbroken feelings that the lyrics is writing about, translates extremely well into the music as well. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like this before, that kind of translation. It’s incredible. Now that is what I call writing with feelings!
We later on get picked up by “The Ghost” which at first starts of pretty nice and sweet, but soon gets more aggressive as the song goes on. “In Torment” is the first of the musclepacks of the album with it’s aggressiveness, and I get impressed by the vocals here. Some of the songs have felt a bit sloppy, as where here he’s really screaming. We get a churchinspired instrumental breakdown in “Agnus Dei” before being launched into the two last songs, as well as two more musclepacks of the album – “The Color of the Cosmos” and “Apprentice of Death”. Nice ending of the album!
So, I think overall it’s a pretty good album, most certainly moving forward – however, it feels a bit flat. While every song has it’s moments, while every song has something, just something that differs them from one another, it still feels bland. Like I’m listening to the same song. I would probably not notice if it wasn’t for the fact I didn’t really listen, you know?
But aside that, it IS a good album – I love all the little accessories and arrangements that has been done, and it is absolutely worth to check out, maybe only for the sake of that.
(Label: AFM Records)
CDON I Amazon I Ginza
// Sara
Sara Hammerzmith 