Mare Infinitum - Sea Of Infinity - review
Mare Infinitum - Sea Of Infinity - review
Band
Mare Infinitum Album
Sea Of Infinity Style
Atmospheric doom metal Release date
December 19, 2011 Tracklist
01. In Absence We Dwell02. Sea Of Infinity
03. Beholding the Unseen
04. November Euphoria
05. In The Name Of My Sin
A review by
BitterCOld February 24, 2012
The aptly titled debut Sea Of Infinity is a sprawling death doom endeavor, featuring five songs that register nearly an hour.
When recalling my listening experience of this release, two key elements immediately spring to mind.
First being the vocals. A.K. possesses a ridiculously powerful low end growl that puts most death vocalists to shame. Whenever he of the inevitable throat surgery starts a-growling he dominates those passages of the tune, pushing everything else to the back. His subsonic barking is countered at times by some clean vocals provided by guest musicians.
The other is the keyboard, which, provides the basic flow of the songs. At times it slows and allows the other instruments to the fore, but for oft extended periods of time, if feels like the keyboard catches everything else up and drowns it out in its wake. Sure, the crushing guitar riffs are still there, but the keyboard simply fills up the vast empty space between strums, thus seeming to overpower the six strings.
There is the occasional solo or "guest instrument", i.e. the violin(?) in the opening of "In The Name Of My Sin" to add a little extra texture to the longer pieces. A nice, short scenic view as the rolling on the river continues.
To continue along with the rolling river metaphor, upon first listening to the opening track, "In Absence We Dwell", I immediately took a slight dislike to the album. For some reason it just didn't click? but as the album wears on, Mare Infinitum gradually erode away my feelings of discontent to the point where midway through the instrumental "November Euphoria", I am thinking happy thoughts and have a positive opinion of the release as a whole.
I found it "meh" at some points, but flat out beautiful at others, with the beautiful segments having a much stronger, more lasting impact. This release is at least on par with the latest from their other associated projects and is worth checking out.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written on 24.02.2012 by
Written on 24.02.2012 by
BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. Comments
Comments:
6
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Posts: 9575
To the record store!
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Posts: 15359 Written by Boxcar Willy on 24.02.2012 at 03:20 more likely "to the website!" as i don't think you'll find a lot of Solitude releases in shops in North America.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Posts: 9575 |
Posts: 9575 Written by BitterCOld on 24.02.2012 at 03:32 Usually my local store can ordfer me stuff in, but yeah you're probably right. To the website!
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 Posts: 2799 |
Posts: 2799
Sounds interesting. I liked Who Dies In Siberian Slush so I might like this as well
---- He who is not bold enough to be stared at from across the abyss is not bold enough to stare into it himself.
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Posts: 702  |
Posts: 702
I think the rating is actually spot-on... the music - although very well crafted and played - is not that original. The album plods along and I absolutely hate the clean vocals... the grunts are fantastic, though...  funnily enough, it feels like a mix of Comatose Vigil and Who Dies In Siberian Slush...
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 Posts: 7905 |
Posts: 7905
"ridiculously powerful low end growl that puts most death vocalists to shame" You know this.....has forced me to check this album out. #"Sure to check" list.
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