An excellent album of well developed, well constructed, and well done, American doom metal. Being their first full length, Among Majestic Ruin showcases that certain "adolescent" quality within the music (I.E lacking production, fuzzy edges, and underdeveloped production) which a band "has" early on, and then abandones as they progress and become better known. In the case of Morgion especially, this abyssic leap is easy to pinpoint, as they seemed to stray towards a more... how shall I put it, "trance" element, rather than the Death/Doom programme that was present in their earlier days. For instance, I miss the ever lurking Celtic Frost taste that floats in and out of the songs, most noteably the bleak first track, dancing around just long enough to distinguish a presence, and then fading away.

On another note, I have always found great respect for this band, simply because of their mastery of the genre, both from a musical standpoint, and also in a rather different "poetic"standpoint. It only takes one look through the lyrics to realize that in one fell swoop, Morgion has gone further than literally every other pathetic gore metal band polluting our scene. For instance:

"Many faces carved in false belief.
Shallow mouths speak your grief.
Winds carry our unmatching thoughts.
In ashen tears thus I cry.
Into a world I have never known. Why"

Or furthermore:

"Simple is the one who sees it, fit no wonder to sample.
Triple, search through the bite.
Sit and develop.
And develop unthinking thoughts."

Brilliant.

Material here is of the highest caliber as well, fusing an interesting element of doom metal, with the vocal structures of death metal, and the writting of perhaps Celtic Frost. On top of this is a very tasteful element of melody found throughout all of the tracks, indeed climaxing at the emotional and supremely evocative instrumental third track. The end product being a masterpiece, for lack of a better word. Bravo!

© 2002 orodruin