God the Lux

Vesania | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 27, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Napalm
• ASIN: B0009Z5YCA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,620 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Proving that evil has long conquered other lands, Poland’s Vesania emerges as the latest symphonic black metal sensation. Featuring members of Behemoth and Vader, God the Lux foregoes black metal clichés and instead presents a very professional, well thought-out album both varied and dark.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Black metal by members of Behemoth and Vader, December 13, 2005

By 

Murat Batmaz (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God the Lux (Audio CD)

With members from Poland's greatest extreme bands Vader and Behemoth, namely Orion on guitars and vocals and Daray on drums, Vesania's second album is a good example of symphonic black metal. Although more noticeable on their debut, their music is still undeniably influenced by Emperor, both in the way the keyboards are used and its almost mechanical production. Orion's vocals are more like death growls rather than screamed black metal shrieks though. He sounds a bit like Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir as he opts for a rough, gravelly delivery. And when the music is decorated with elaborate synth lines, as on "Fireclipse", marked by very heavy riffs, the comparisons are inevitable. Likewise, "Synchroscheme" features luscious keyboards contrasted by brutal vocals and an Emperor-like song pattern.

As much as Napalm Records may claim otherwise, Vesania isn't breaking new ground. However, they certainly are a good band in the way that they know songs can use all kinds of variation in rhythm and tempo. Rather than playing stupidly fast guitar licks and incessant double bass drums, drummer Daray certainly incorporates his death metal background in the mix with awesome cymbal hopping on the tremelo-picked "Rest in Pain", a song defined by a fierce rhythmic anchor, melodic breaks, and symphonic sounds. At the end of the song, however, Daray reaches his ultimate apex as his playing matches the speed of a steam engine. Aside from the blast beat-ridden drums, the guitar work alternates between slow, menacing riffage to ultra-heavy and crushing tones. Also, three out of twelve songs are interspersed between the tracks to help diversify God the Lux, as they are short instrumental pieces where keyboardist Siegmar from Hasperos lays down some delicate orchestration similar to the stuff heard on Limbonic Arts' records. He plays effect-laden passages of atmosphere with an added breadth to the sound. Gothic darkness, male and female voiceovers, a deliberately bad mix all unite in perfect harmony by the time the following song kicks in. "Phosphorror" opens up with sweet synth tones before it veers into Vesania's classic Emperor meets Dimmu Borgir trademark, but halfway through, the song is broken down into segments of orchestral soundscapes with easy shifts in harmony. This might be the most original thing on the album. One thing I can't understand is why they decided to put a 25-minute track as the album closer of which 24 minutes are total silence. If this was an attempt to create tension or atmosphere, I'm much of the opinion that Vesania should leave these kinds of things up to the gods like Ulver and Agalloch. Vesania is better off playing old school black metal with modern production and intricate instrumentation in my opinion.

Granted it's far from any Behemoth or Vader album, God the Lux is still a fine piece of work. With both bands' heavy touring and recording schedules, we should give both Orion and Daray credit as they still find the time to carry on with this project.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A strong album, November 2, 2005

By 

Homer "Metal Lives" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God the Lux (Audio CD)

I'm surprised this band isn't getting more attention. This CD shows that they have developed a very aggresive sound. Posthuman Kind is definately THE stand out track, it is just so powerful and epic. It has the later Dimmu feel, however, not all tracks are like this. The rest of the tracks are just brutal metal, Orion, of BEHEMOTH, another great band, does the vocals and guitar work. A big complaint of mine about this album, and this is why I gave it 4 stars, is that the vocals are mixed so far back in the music you can barely hear them. Synchroscheme is a great blast beat filled track of metal. A lot of promise on this, the album feels a little disjointed at times and this causes some of the songs to not be that memorable. A great buy if you enjoy well produced black metal/thrash metal, Behemoth fans will probably enjoy this. The vocals are definately not as deep as Behemoth's, more like mid-range growling.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great black/death metal from Poland, December 8, 2005

By 

Smithy1185 (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God the Lux (Audio CD)

Vesania is a truly talented band. With members from Behemoth and Vader you know that this cd should be good and thankfully it is. In kind of a symphonic black/death metal combination, Vesania creates some excellent music. All of the tracks are amazing and the production is very well done. My only complaint would be that its a little on the short side but thats not a big deal. If you are looking for a band that is great at what they play and hasn't gone the mainstream route of other blackmetal bands, then grab yourself a copy of God the Lux. You won't be sorry.