Various Artists
...Until the End of Time
[The End]
This is the End Records' sampler featuring 6 bands from its roster.
Compilation opens with Mental Home's track out of their "Black Art" album.
Great symphonic doom with majestic keyboards. There is another song by
Mental Home from their "Vale" album, which is in the vein of old Tiamat, and
very enjoyable too.
Next up is Sculptured, who play a kind of melodic progressive metal with Death Metal vocals and some acoustic guitars, Though not my thing, it is, in fact, quite good and well played.
Next we've got Epoch of Unlight - a Death/Black band from Tennessee (American state that is overwhelmed with country music if you are wondering). The singer shrieks like Dani Filth at times, or are there two singers? Looks like it, since the other voice is your average death/black screaming. If one guy could pull off both of these styles, hail to him. Overall, I wasn't impressed by them because the music is very average, but it is quite solid, nevertheless, especially considering excellent production and tight musicianship (the drummer is a real motherfucker, I must say).
Nokturnal Mortum is next with 2 songs. One from "Goat Horns" and another from "To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire" album. Nokturnal Mortum play Black Metal with heavy use of keyboards. You can read the reviews of the above mentioned albums elsewhere on this site.
Odes of Ecstacy are a Greek band which includes a female vocalist with opera-like vocal delivery and a male singer who provides the Death Metal type growls. While I consider vast majority of female vocals in Metal to be rather cheesy (Cradle of Filth for instance), here it's actually very well done. The interplay between the female soprano and Death Metal growls really gels with the music, which is a mixture of Death and Progressive Metal with melodic keyboards, resulting in a very beautiful song. Impressive.
Last band on the compilation is Scholomance. And this band is quite a treat. They fit more styles in one song than many bands manage to fit into an entire album. Elements of Black, Death, Progressive, Industrial, even some Ethnic music (a Middle-Eastern melody in the beginning of the song). The press-release described Scholomance as avant-garde metal. I have to agree. Cool song, and a very unique band.
Overall, a nice introduction to the young and promising label.
© 1999 boris
Next up is Sculptured, who play a kind of melodic progressive metal with Death Metal vocals and some acoustic guitars, Though not my thing, it is, in fact, quite good and well played.
Next we've got Epoch of Unlight - a Death/Black band from Tennessee (American state that is overwhelmed with country music if you are wondering). The singer shrieks like Dani Filth at times, or are there two singers? Looks like it, since the other voice is your average death/black screaming. If one guy could pull off both of these styles, hail to him. Overall, I wasn't impressed by them because the music is very average, but it is quite solid, nevertheless, especially considering excellent production and tight musicianship (the drummer is a real motherfucker, I must say).
Nokturnal Mortum is next with 2 songs. One from "Goat Horns" and another from "To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire" album. Nokturnal Mortum play Black Metal with heavy use of keyboards. You can read the reviews of the above mentioned albums elsewhere on this site.
Odes of Ecstacy are a Greek band which includes a female vocalist with opera-like vocal delivery and a male singer who provides the Death Metal type growls. While I consider vast majority of female vocals in Metal to be rather cheesy (Cradle of Filth for instance), here it's actually very well done. The interplay between the female soprano and Death Metal growls really gels with the music, which is a mixture of Death and Progressive Metal with melodic keyboards, resulting in a very beautiful song. Impressive.
Last band on the compilation is Scholomance. And this band is quite a treat. They fit more styles in one song than many bands manage to fit into an entire album. Elements of Black, Death, Progressive, Industrial, even some Ethnic music (a Middle-Eastern melody in the beginning of the song). The press-release described Scholomance as avant-garde metal. I have to agree. Cool song, and a very unique band.
Overall, a nice introduction to the young and promising label.
© 1999 boris