Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2016 18:46:51 GMT -6
O, Majestic Winter - Eternal Shores: A Spiritual Odyssey
Year: 2015
Genre: Atmospheric Experimental Black Metal
Six years after An Autumn Moon, O, Majestic Winter finally released their third album, Eternal Shores: A Spiritual Odyssey. Just as An Autumn Moon was less experimental than Defiling the Serpent's Temple, Eternal Shores takes another step away from experimentation. There are still some experimental elements present, but for the most part, this is simply atmospheric/ambient black metal. It's ocean-themed, weirdly enough, but I think that works out quite well. The band uses a lot of ambience to cater to this theme, and they did a fantastic job with it. "To Journey with Faith in One's Spirit", for example, is filled with water sounds, synths, and low tom drumming, evoking images of some kind of tribal ritual. "Psalm of the Oceanborn" is a much more mysterious ambient track. "Tempest of the Great Owl" has an ambient section in the middle featuring a chime and wind sounds. "The Unrest of Peaceful Waters" is a wistful interlude with a repeated acoustic riff and some kind of flute-like wind instrument.
Speaking of repetition, this album has it. A lot of it. So much to the point where it really takes away from the music, especially when the band repeats parts that weren't written well to begin with. An Autumn Moon had its fair share of repetition, but I think it worked well there. Here, it usually doesn't. "To Journey with Hope in One's Heart" is an extremely repetitive song with bad riffs throughout, and easily the worst track on the album. Even the songs that I think are well-written could use a few more riffs, such as "Tempest of the Great Owl". The only songs that seem to work well with repetition are the wistful acoustic interludes, like the aforementioned "The Unrest of Peaceful Waters", "Halcyon: A Gale's Passing", and "To Journey with Focus in One's Gaze". It's really the metal parts that detract from the album. The riffs sound more grindy than they did on An Autumn Moon, but not as grindy as the debut. I also hear occasional 'core influences, which don't seem to sound very good most of the time. 'Core-influenced black metal is good in certain places, but it just doesn't fit here. Some of the riffs are pretty decent; I like the riffs at the beginning of "Tempest of the Great Owl" and "Valdonia: The Vulturous", but they are merely decent for the most part. The drumming is adequate but unremarkable outside of "To Journey with Faith in One's Spirit". The vocals are good. I really like the occasional clean vocals because they contribute a great deal to the mood established by the atmosphere.
I think the problem with this album is that the atmosphere and the metal don't play hand-in-hand like they did in An Autumn Moon, and instead you have mediocre metal separated from great ambience. This album is definitely heavier than its predecessor, but I don't think that's necessarily a good thing, because they don't really have the songwriting skills to back that up. It's possible that the poor production on Defiling the Serpent's Temple hid some bad riffs, but we can't know for sure. Either way, I enjoyed that more than I enjoy this. I find myself listening to the album for the atmospheric parts, and wanting to just skip through the metal. That's not a good thing.
For some reason, I really liked this album when it first came out. I'm not sure why. It's not entirely bad, but parts of it are.
70/100
-CrimsonWarrior
Buy it from Metal Helm:
metalhelm.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=182_183&products_id=1218
Year: 2015
Genre: Atmospheric Experimental Black Metal
Six years after An Autumn Moon, O, Majestic Winter finally released their third album, Eternal Shores: A Spiritual Odyssey. Just as An Autumn Moon was less experimental than Defiling the Serpent's Temple, Eternal Shores takes another step away from experimentation. There are still some experimental elements present, but for the most part, this is simply atmospheric/ambient black metal. It's ocean-themed, weirdly enough, but I think that works out quite well. The band uses a lot of ambience to cater to this theme, and they did a fantastic job with it. "To Journey with Faith in One's Spirit", for example, is filled with water sounds, synths, and low tom drumming, evoking images of some kind of tribal ritual. "Psalm of the Oceanborn" is a much more mysterious ambient track. "Tempest of the Great Owl" has an ambient section in the middle featuring a chime and wind sounds. "The Unrest of Peaceful Waters" is a wistful interlude with a repeated acoustic riff and some kind of flute-like wind instrument.
Speaking of repetition, this album has it. A lot of it. So much to the point where it really takes away from the music, especially when the band repeats parts that weren't written well to begin with. An Autumn Moon had its fair share of repetition, but I think it worked well there. Here, it usually doesn't. "To Journey with Hope in One's Heart" is an extremely repetitive song with bad riffs throughout, and easily the worst track on the album. Even the songs that I think are well-written could use a few more riffs, such as "Tempest of the Great Owl". The only songs that seem to work well with repetition are the wistful acoustic interludes, like the aforementioned "The Unrest of Peaceful Waters", "Halcyon: A Gale's Passing", and "To Journey with Focus in One's Gaze". It's really the metal parts that detract from the album. The riffs sound more grindy than they did on An Autumn Moon, but not as grindy as the debut. I also hear occasional 'core influences, which don't seem to sound very good most of the time. 'Core-influenced black metal is good in certain places, but it just doesn't fit here. Some of the riffs are pretty decent; I like the riffs at the beginning of "Tempest of the Great Owl" and "Valdonia: The Vulturous", but they are merely decent for the most part. The drumming is adequate but unremarkable outside of "To Journey with Faith in One's Spirit". The vocals are good. I really like the occasional clean vocals because they contribute a great deal to the mood established by the atmosphere.
I think the problem with this album is that the atmosphere and the metal don't play hand-in-hand like they did in An Autumn Moon, and instead you have mediocre metal separated from great ambience. This album is definitely heavier than its predecessor, but I don't think that's necessarily a good thing, because they don't really have the songwriting skills to back that up. It's possible that the poor production on Defiling the Serpent's Temple hid some bad riffs, but we can't know for sure. Either way, I enjoyed that more than I enjoy this. I find myself listening to the album for the atmospheric parts, and wanting to just skip through the metal. That's not a good thing.
For some reason, I really liked this album when it first came out. I'm not sure why. It's not entirely bad, but parts of it are.
70/100
-CrimsonWarrior
Buy it from Metal Helm:
metalhelm.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=182_183&products_id=1218