Band:	Maudlin Of The Well
Album:	Bath
Style:	Avantgarde metal, Progressive rock
Release date:	August 31, 2001
Guest review by:	Todgeist

01. The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qliphoth
02. They Aren't All Beautiful
03. Heaven And Weak
04. (Interlude 1)
05. The Ferryman
06. Marid's Gift Of Art
07. Girl With A Watering Can
08. Birth Pains Of Astral Projection
09. (Interlude 2)
10. Geography
11. The Ocean, The Kingdom, And The Temptation [demo] [bonus]
12. Uncovering The Gift [bonus]
13. The Horror Of Lunars Retreat [bonus]

Maudlin Of The Well, aka Kayo Dot, is a curious band: it is very difficult (and takes some effort) to really understand the music they write, but once you do, it is almost guaranteed you will enjoy it. Bath is yet more proof of that, with all its little pieces of perfection that put together form the musical mosaic of this album.

Each band is a gold mine: there are good riffs and "earth" to hold it together, and some mines have more gold than other mines. This album is full of gold, and it amused me that the more you listen to this album the more gold you dig. This music is so powerful it can make you feel whatever it wants you to. Take "They Aren't All Beautiful", for instance: the song gives you an annoying feeling of discomfort that grows stronger and stronger, until you get to the other piece of gold they buried there. This is a great example of avant-garde metal, going from black/death metal grinds to a somewhat scary jazz/funky guitar sequence.

As many good bands do (Opeth, The Faceless, etc.), the album features both clean voice and guttural screams, and it surprised me to listen to a female voice, which I personally wasn't expecting. To have an idea of the reach of the album, there are two songs you MUST listen to: "They Aren't All Beautiful", as said before, and "The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qliphoth", and even then you may not understand the album as a whole, but I can assure you, if you do like any kind of metal, that at some point listening to the album you will stop to admire a riff, solo or clean sequence.

There is not much left to say about the album itself without going in a song-by-song detailed review, which I am not going to write. My suggestion is to simply play the album while you're bored using your computer (or reading album reviews) and listen to it without really forcing yourself into the music, because at some point you will feel that you need to hear that one riff over and over again, and the curiosity will lead you to loving the album, as it happened to me. The album deserves a 10 because the music is very different from what is usually produced in the metal industry and there are no flaws to point out when it comes to the music itself (the production not included).