Peccatum "Lost in Reverie" CD
[The End]
I've never been able to fully appreciate Peccatum in the past, but a lot seems to have changed in the years since their last release, as the band is basically just Ihriel and Ihsahn now, sans a few tracks with outside contributions on drums and additional vocals. The music is far more experimental and electronic as well. For the first several minutes opening track "Desolate Ever After" is nothing but orchestral ambience and some faint whispering, eventually introducing rhythmic electronic beats and some heavily manipulated guitar chords, but then softening back down to piano and distant singing. "In the Bodiless Heart" then opens with some jazzy/progressive drums and basslines with acoustic guitars that are almost certainly too pristine to not have been synthesized!? This track is absolutely beautiful, though... the singing is soft and fades in well against the music, the fretless basslines are very prominent, etc. Electric guitars kick in against some of Ihsahn's spectacularly improved singing (fucking amazing, really), but they don't stick around for long - definitely solidifying this album's constant interplay between louder/softer passages, granted nothing is exceedingly "aggressive", and the varying dynamics are perfectly fused. "Parasite My Heart" opens with the first full blown metal riffing, 15 minutes into the disc, complete with lightly distorted screaming - clashing technical and precise black metal influenced riffing with keyboards and unusual time signatures and progressive elements, but still contrasting everything with piano and soft female singing passages. The melodic and very intentionally arranged leads are absolutely stunning, however - making this one of the most epic tracks herein. "Veils of Blue" is more dissonant and uses more obscure electronics and quirky guitar riffing that's a lot more angular and creative (for better or for worse) as well as some weird 70's sounding prog/fusion keyboards and percussion. And, I know I'll get reamed for saying this, but some of the eerie melodic/dissonant metal riffs in "Black Star" are far superior to anything Ihsahn ever penned for Emperor - far better. "Stillness" is the weak link as it's the most disjointed and perhaps jarring track, heavily layered with the use of rhythmic electronics, but the soft singing and piano/sinister orchestrations in "The Banks of the River is Night" close on a more fitting note. Every song tops six minutes, many frequenting more than seven or eight, but it never gets boring... it's clear that a lot of thought went into the arrangements of the compositions, keeping in mind the album as a complete whole. For the most part the recording is fabulous. Sometimes ("Parasite My Heart" for one) the aggressive vocals can be a tad loud and the live drums can lose their depth and almost sound programmed (during the truly metallic moments for some odd reason), but the calmer moments all sound 100% fucking gorgeous. Lush, deep, perfectly mixed... highly atmospheric. Its all crystal clear as well. Really impressive as it was produced/engineered by the band... their time away has been stunningly well spent. The layout, too, is absolutely awesome, using tons of totally professional black and white photographs, some decorative floral patterns, etc. Everything is very clean and crisp, and it just looks fucking great. I like some of the lyrics as well, they're strange, but curious: "Sickening, sickening place, Framed snapshots of buzzing stillness, Noisy Polaroid faces, With tick, tack clock voices, With crawling on my skin words..." I give this a 9/10 not necessarily out of any true emotional connection to the music, it certainly hits me, but in all truth, beyond the fact that this is an excellent set of songs, I simply respect the creativity and professionalism of the disc. One of the best and by far among the most creative releases of 2004. The band has finally hit their stride, and I have no doubts that they could get even better with time. There's technically not bad a bad song here, just good songs and great songs. (9/10)
Running time - 49:57, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: In the Bodiless Heart, Parasite My Heart, Veils of Blue, Black Star]
The End Records - http://www.theendrecords.com

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