Medebor "Phantasma" CD
[Apocalypse]
The title track opens up the debut from this Polish act, a brief instrumental with some doomy piano lines against samples of rain, and I have to say that this is one of the most effective intros I've ever heard - it's not too long, the melodies and the atmosphere are nice, and it flows into the opening track well. Sadly the meat of the band's music, while promising, just isn't par for the course just yet. At times they hit on some nice melodic passages with slow rhythms and nice droning lead lines ala earlier Katatonia with a bit of Paradise Lost thrown in, but then they'll sway over into some chunky and moderately paced traditional metal or softer atmospheric parts driven by bass or occasional clean guitars - and some of that causes them to aimlessly wander around and bulk up the songs to unnecessary lengths. I wouldn't mind six- to eight-minute songs were they based more around powerful repetition. The vocals are basically low growls (sometimes bringing in higher screaming textures), typical of this style of music. They're not bad, but they could be better, something's missing... I'm not sure what it is. They're okay, though. As a whole this does basically sound like "Brave Murder Day" meets "Shades of God", which is cool, I love that writing style and these guys write some awesome parts - but it's those weird classic metal influenced chord progressions that really throw me for a loop and clash with the general tone of the songs (especially problematic in "Enigma"). As far as the production, it's alright. If the performances were totally tight and the songwriting were in order I could live with this. The guitar tone is really good, and the drums sound alright, I'd just mix the bass a bit more prominently and keep the vocals in check against the guitar parts. It's not overly polished at all, so it could use cleaning up, but it's not so bad. I'm not a big fan of the layout just because it looks a little cheesy, and all of the woodland photos are taken during sunset, which don't really fit the emotions or feeling of the music. The band photos are also cheesy, as some members are smiling, some are baring their teeth, some are trying to look "evil", etc. and they all have a weird, chalky black substance smeared around their eyes. The lyrics are also a little underdeveloped, and I'm not quite sure what they're going for: "Do you hear slow and quiet, Steel vultures deadly ballet, Beginning begins at the end..." I don't know, musically I think they're very close to being a step above what this CD offers. I think the lyrics need work, and they certainly need a more mature and appropriate visual presentation to house their offerings. I'll be curious to see if they can secure their place at some point. (5/10)
Running time - 55:25, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Arch Mysteria, Amok (Weep in Delerium)]
Medebor - http://medebor.rockmetal.art.pl

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