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venerdì 25 settembre 2015

Mare Infinitum - Alien Monolith God

#FOR FANS OF: Atmospheric Doom/Death Metal, Morgion, Shape of Despair
As has become quite common-place recently, Russia has spewed forth an impressive collection of Doom/Death Metal bands that offer sprawling, majestic paces mixed with melody and aggression, and much like those bands this three-piece effort offers a crushing display of that style on this second full-length. The whole idea here is glacial-slow paces, built around thudding bass-lines and plodding, simple drumming with a fine mix of churning, low-end guitar riffing compiling some of the heaviest rhythms possible at such a finite tempo to produce a fine Doom/Death Metal base while the rather pleasing addition of clean vocals and celestial keyboards provide this with some rather pleasing atmospheres, and the whole affair is effectively dripping with a kind of quality one expects from the recent explosion of Russian acts attempting similar styles. In fact, the pace and vibe here borders on Funeral Doom Metal at times in terms of tempo but still keeps this one more firmly rooted in the Death Metal realms which is quite enjoyable at times even if responsible for making this a little slower than would be expected from such a genre, and as a whole the album is quite enjoyable. Opening track ‘The Nightmare Corpse – City of R’lyeh’ turns from light lilting guitars to a steady mid-paced crunch and follows through nicely as the mix of cleans and harsh growls compliment the raging tune nicely as this kicks off the album in fine fashion. ‘Prosthetic Consciousness’ also follows suit with a similar opening style that again turns into a simplistic, plodding series of crushingly heavy rhythms and plenty of stylish patterns that do keep the atmosphere going while never quite doing much of anything to get the pace going as this is just too slow and plodding to mean much of anything here against the other tracks. The epic title track is another massively slow-burning effort filled with plodding tempos and a series of fine celestial-inspired keyboards coursing through the middling pace as the heaviness is substituted very nicely for melody instead as the massive arrangements move into a light, relaxing celestial journey that makes for quite a moving experience here, and while it could’ve been trimmed up a bit still ranks as one of the highlights. ‘Beholding the Unseen Chapter 2’ attempts to change that up with a more pronounced and explosive series of truer Doom/Death Metal stylings with a rather discernible emphasis on a heavy rhythm and rather bombastic series of keyboards amidst the thumping riffs that make for another strong highlight offering. Lastly, ‘The Sun That Harasses My Solitude’ offers a strong, lilting piano intro with atmospheric keyboards through the plodding, celestial tempos crashing along with the Doom rhythms and a grandiose, majestic finale that makes for a great conclusion here. They do this style quite well, and are certainly enjoyable enough overall even if they can do with some shortening up from time-to-time. (Don Anelli)

(Solitude Productions - 2015)
Score: 80