Customer Reviews

Negative Megalomania

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The five songs running for almost one hour have many slower doomy sections but the rhytm is very much varied as are the melodies. There are some (unhappy) clean vocals but different shrieks, cries and growls are dominant. The guitars are also marvelous - accoustic layers over older-katatonia-like mid-tempos switch to pure down-tuned black metal fury, just to erupt in plentiful solos and then switch to doomy ambient... The mood of this record is bleak, yet there are many many beautiful melodic moments implying the hope to prevail against all the world's ills.
This is an amazing record and I can't get enough of it!

It is always easy for me to remember the name of this band because I always think "rhymes with doom - Forgotten Tomb". This new release is a pleasing enough collection of melodic doom with some earnest tempo changes. Rhythms vary from funereal in the gloomy "A Dish Best served Cold" all the way to a decent mid to up-tempo blast beat driven final track "No Rehab".

Guitar leads here, both acoustic and electric, are sometimes quite reminiscent of Katatonia, and the solos on this album are both generous and varied. The first and title track kicks of with rhythm guitar riffing that will make you wonder if you are listening to a Kat album. Keep listening, 'cause the guitars move into a nice blackened tremolo break right about the five minute mark. Don't however, make the mistake however, of expecting the Kat-style ballads on this album. The shortest song in this collection of five runs just under eight minutes, with the entire album running a very satisfying 56 minutes.

Throughout, the musicianship is solid and pleasing. The afore mentioned guitar work is the most impressive feature, to my mind, of this Italian quintet. Plenty of bell-like soaring solos, downtuned gloom, blackened tremolo and an interesting blues reverb solo (Blood and Concrete). Percussion and Bass are also nicely done and in keeping with the musical style.

Vocalist Ferdinando Merchisio (that's "Lord Morbid" to you, bud) has a very satisfying black shriek and revenant growl. At the same time, I have a few problems with his vocals. At about the eight and a half minute mark of "Blood and Concrete" he actually sounds like he is hacking up a furball.

The "clean" vocal segments vary between acceptable and odd. Here and there the cleans have a quality and phrasing that reminds me of Axel Rose, a peculiar vocal choice only made more peculiar by the cheesy harmonies in the chorus. Most noticeable on the third track, "the Scapegoat", these harmonies and the Guns and Roses style guitar solo that follows it seem oddly out of place with the style and tone of the rest of the album. On the fourth track, "A Dish Best served Cold", tthe Axel Rose thing appears again, but not anywhere so noticeable and intrusive as on the third. In other places he seems to be evoking Garm of Ulver, with somewhat mixed results, but I have to say that everything falls together nicely on the final track, a complex blackened opus, "My Rehab" is my choice for the best song on the album.

These few caveats aside, I highly recommend Negative Megalomania to anyone who likes melodic doom such as Katatonia or My Dying Bride. This album delivers. 4 out of 5 stars.