Galadriel, the fairest of them all
“A
solemn pilgrimage through nightclad wintry woods”
Three years after their acclaimed debut album “The Golden Bough”, epic German metallers are back with another strong slab of mythological iron. Even though it was the album I was expecting, it's nonetheless another strong effort. I do think they deserve the throne of epic metal and their new full length is only confirming this. Procession and Evangelist should all kiss the hand of the white goddess because it's a excellent album.
Composed of four
epic ten minutes tracks, three interludes and a shorter eight minutes
track, the album is a nice trip into philosophical or religious
territories with “Heresiarch (Thousandfaced Moon)” and “Sol
Invictus (With Faith and Fire)”. Their lyrical theme is absolutely
excellent, I'm pretty sure the guys are historians or theologians
since there's a true clerical research found here. Named after the
famous book of Robert Graves, both this book and this album is a
continuation of “The Golden Bough”. Taking the magical and poetic
influences of these books, the band managed to create a rich
lyricism for their music. It's much more subtle than many other
lyrics and you can see that there's a real effort but into them. To
be honest, many metal bands just seem to disregard their lyrics as an
afterthought. It's perhaps not as much as important as the music for
this style of music but I consider that if you want to be a complete
band, it's essential to have a solid lyrical representation. It's not
Sarcofago so bad lyrics are not an excuse
“At
the standing stones the scythe will set him free. Bound to the oak,
the Kingpriest‘s life for our creed”
Musically,
I feel the band explored a doomier realm this time. There's no four
minutes catchy track like “Disciples of the Iron Crown” to be
found here. The catchier track is probably “Twelve Stars and an
Azure Gown” with its awesome melodic repeated lead and the
Churchill Zurich speech in 1946 and it's about the fate
of Europe and the intestinal rivalries between the countries that
destroyed the continent. It also has
this awesome lead inspired by heavy/power metal and showcases the out
of this world clean vocals of Markus Becker. His voice, not tough or
rough, is perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Atlantean Kodex, he's
like this prince with a golden voice protected by the other four
members of his kodex. The production on his vocal is less airy and
tighter than on the previous album and that's an appreciable
improvement.
“If
Europe were once united in the sharing of its common inheritance,
there would be no limit to the happiness, to the prosperity and the
glory which its three or four million people would enjoy”1
I
think the songwriting is more mature and rich as well while not
intrinsically different from their early releases. I was listening to
“The Pnakotic Demos” yesterday and except for the mediocre
production, the basis of their sound is still there especially in the
epic first track “From Shores Forsaken”. The sound only grew to
an higher echelon here, the songs are as long but they're more
focused and better overall. The guitars are heavy and the vocals
destroys all the opposition in the epic metal world. Even if they
already has this huge Solstice influence early on (hurry the fuck up
Richard, it's been 15 years since “New Dark Age), it's a bit more
present here or at least the epic doom atmosphere ate a large part of
the traditional heavy/power sound. There's still the cool USPM
inspired parts here and there, I guess you can still hear the mark of
Cauldron Born especially in the high clean vocals.
The
guitars of Koch and Trummer are excellent, from blistering leads to
acoustic parts such as the short interlude “Bilwis (Sorcery and
Witchcraft in Eastern Bavaria)”. They're never doing too much,
never too flashy and they just deliver these good riffs one after
one. Nonetheless, I almost think they're a bit overshadowed by the
vocals, there's so many lyrics that even an eleven minutes song can
feel short and busy. This can be both a good and a bad thing in some
cases since the album can become overwhelming. Everything is great
but it's so epic that it hurts. I wish the interludes would be longer
or that they would have included a ballad of some sort on their
album. The one hour album feels massive and even though there's still
some interesting tempo changes, it can get a bit monotonous at times.
I mean, I'm sure the taste of a deep fried hot dog is totally sublime
but yeah, I wouldn't eat...OK I probably would but that's because I'm
a pig!
“The
White Goddess” is still grandiose enough, the epic connoisseurs
will enjoy its bombastic approach and its rich songwriting. The
album ends on an high note with a three minutes piano conclusion
integrated on “White Goddess Unveiled”, a great twelve minutes
song. The band has the balls to pull off interesting things but I
feel they can and should do more exploration. Why not write long ass
instrumental songs à la Melechesh and Lykathea Aflame! I believe
they have the necessary vision and potential to do such things. I
simply wish they would expand the clean moments found on a song like
“Vesper All Hymn” featured on their previous album, it had this
almost western or flamenco touch (quite unsure about myself here
obviously) that I enjoyed a lot. Furthermore, with the integration
of a slower/doomier sound, the catchiness of “The Golden Bough”
has evaporated a little. Their 2013 release is more one sided and
less varied than their esteemed debut.
The
album is a safe sophomore to say the least, I wasn't of course
expecting a new age record but the quality is optimal. The production
is great and atmospheric, the musicians are top notch, the lyrics are
perhaps the best written the genre has seen in a while and it's very
epic, perhaps too much. This is still the best epic metal album of
2013, I, without certain restraints, welcome the new reigning kings
to their throne.
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