As All Die "Germanic Tales" 3" CD
[Somnambulant]
This brief EP begins with "Children of the Northern Lands": Just under six minutes of minimal, bleak dark ambient synth tones with some sparse resonant percussion and softly whispered vocals. "Radios Are Down Over London Tonight" follows with some similar textures as far as low, somewhat melodic synths are concerned, but there are some far harsher textures at work in the middle, as well as some explosive sounds and rattling sort of vibration. "Funeral March" closes out, slightly shorter, and definitely a lot more musical in nature, employing several layers of melodic synths and deep spoken vocals under ethereal sort of effects. I'm not totally into the vocals, but I think the delivery here is 100% more effective than the overdramatic voices often chosen for the last As All Die full-length. The recording is very nice. It's not as loud as one might expect, but the mix is always smooth and flowing, and the tones are warm. I don't have any complaints there. As with most Somnambulant Corpse releases the layout is very nice. The imagery and typefaces are all clean and consistent, the printing is fairly high quality, etc. The face of the CD-R has artwork as well, which is a nice touch. All of the imagery seems to deal with World War II and whatnot, obviously relating to the theme of the release. Not bad at all. Better than I had expected, in fact. If the project continues evolving in this direction I'll be very pleased. (7/10)
Running time - 15:16, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: all three are nice, but "Children of the Northern Lands" stands out the most...]
Somnambulant Corpse - http://www.somnambulantcorpse.com

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