The Gates of Oblivion

This is certainly an evolving of sounds. Here Coram Lethe have weakened their influences from melodeath and have incorporated more atmospheric elements into their sound. Certainly there are still plenty of nods to At The Gates in their riffs, but the rhythms here seem more focused on a sense of brutality than melody.

To evidence their stronger leanings towards atmosphere, the very first track of this record "The Angels Fell" is largely an ambient instrumental, with very powerful guitars crashing in at about 0:53, while maintaining the symphonic elements. It flows fairly well into the second track, "Shouts of Cowards" which doesn't deviate too strongly from Coram Lethe's sound. "Dying Water Walk With Us", however, does. Far heavier during it's heavy parts, and far more splendidly melodic than any clean break on "Reminiscence", they have certainly changed some things, and for the better.

One thing that has certainly improved from the last album is the vocalist. The sound of the man's voice is less distinct in comparison to the performance on "Reminiscence", however it is far more powerful and, to be blunt, less annoying. He experiments around with deeper growls, some spoken sections (The first minute or so of I, Oblivion has both a spoken and cleanly sung section), all of which work out wonderfully.

As I said earlier, the riffs sound less like they were pulled straight out of an At The Gates tab book and sound more original. More chugging rhythms can be heard now (Listen to Pain Therapy For A Praying Mantis for an example). The guitars are simple to make out but occasionally they will bleed into the sound of the drums, though not horribly. The drummer does a far better job of not annoying anyone with the same oddball attempts at originality he was guilty of along with the vocalist last time. The only real qualm I have with this album is that some songs drag on for a minute or so too long. Aside from that, they've introduced what I consider to be some welcome changes. Let us hope they do not disappoint by ending that trend with this album.