I don't know where to begin with this one. I had heard tons of great things about Vitersorg, so a few years ago I bought "Cosmic Genesis" when it came out, and I loved it. I was a little let down by the following "Visions From the Spiral Generator" by comparison, but I still bought "The Focusing Blur" because I respect the band's creativity and originality. But this record is a huge letdown. The lineup is still incredibly solid: Vintersorg (vocals, guitars, synths/electronics, etc.), Mattias Marklund (guitars), the mighty Steve DiGiorgio (bass), and Spiral Architect's Asgeir Mickelson - (drums), but from the get go this record reeks of problematic decisions. Talk about a fucking terrible decision for an opening track... not only is "Prologue Dialogue - The Reason" absolutely worthless, but it's full of nothing but overly dramatic synths that sound like bad Tolkien inspired video game music with silly spoken vocals (also overdramatic). "The Essence" opens with beautiful acoustic guitars and restores my hopes, but the song is still boring, bogged down by irritating synth textures, some overdramatic vocal experiments, and a generally tinny recording that lacks depth. The best, and possibly only truly good decision they made this time out was to actually mix DiGiorgio's bass playing louder so that you can actually hear it (unlike "Visions From the Spiral Generator"), and the acoustic guitars sound great as well. But everything else is too thin, and I'll be damned if a few of the guitar parts don't sound a bit choppy to me, which is very uncharacteristic of this stuff. "Matrix Odyssey" begins with programmed drums and more terribly cheesy spoken vocals that sound like some sort of fucking Shakespearean actor or something, and once more unnecessary keyboards interfere with some otherwise terrific technical riffing throughout the track. Hell, even some of Vintersorg's singing sounds off, and a few of the vocal melody lines are painfully poor (portions of "Star Puzzled" are especially horrific). DiGiorgio and Mickelson work perfectly together and add the most character to this disc, but the overall weaknesses of the songwriting prevent their performances from saving much. "A Microscopical Macrocosm" is one of the few tracks that has the memorable progressive edge that I enjoyed so much on "Cosmic Genesis" - less a "metal" track than some of the more extreme moments on this disc, which may be the reason it's so much better? Visually the front cover looks pretty nice and sort of catches the eye with its geometric patterns and color scheme, and the rest of the layout looks pretty good as well, some pages more interesting than others. Lyrically things get pretty involved in exploring the concepts of creation and knowledge and things like that, often bordering on the awkward, but getting intriguing as well. "Pictorial impulses trigger the mechanism, a mental blending of their entrance, Soul-born impressions end the blindsight's schism, and expands the human competence. Functions in the hidden eye, A window to intuitive perception, The visions become stars in the soul's sky, And light's the immense conception..." But really, I'm honestly stunned by how bad this record is overall. I can't remember the last time I was so disappointed in a record I purchased by a band that I'm a fan of, or heard a band that was formerly so awesome take such a huge dive. It's still a progressive mix of technical influences, black metal (very rarely), etc. But the songwriting... it's just not there. I'm not even sure I'll keep this record. The few good songs don't really save it for me, and at this rate I can't say I'd plan on buying the next Vintersorg disc as a result of this letdown. I can't possibly be alone on this...? If you're new to Vintersorg, do not start with this record, whatever you do. Go get "Cosmic Genesis" and then dig around from there.
[Napalm]
Running time - 53:50, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: A Microscopical Macrocosm, Epilogue Metalogue - Sharpen Your Mind Tools]
Vintersorg - http://www.vintersorg.com
