Of Shadows... and the Dark Things You Fear

Current and third release from the rather unknown German band "Cryptic Wintermoon" and also the second album I bought from them. The first time I saw this in a record store, I was grasped by the great artwork, depicting a landscape with a distorted picture of a city in the background. Hills, futuristic looking towers and a mob of what appear to be citizens marching through fog towards the city. Now normally, I wouldn't begin a review describing the artwork, but this one is one of the better CD artworks out there and fits the music excellently. The booklet filled with lyrics for the songs was by contrast a little sparce and without much variation, depicting the same picture over and over again. But this is of course a minor aspect and should not affect the musical madness the CD itself contains.

Cryptic Wintermoon have turned the page and moved on from their "melodic" black metal influenced sound to a more melodic death metal style that can be compared to their Gothenburg counterparts. Not being from Gothenburg doesn't mean you can't mimic the musical style. Their themes are typical for this kind of music, ranging from abstract interpretations of god and war to paranoia. The solid riffing here is also very catchy and decent. The song structures are easy to overview, as they always follow a certain pattern, not very difficult to perceive. Compared to their other releases the guitar tone on this record is the most mature and the best processed. Highlights on this matter are to be found on almost every song on the LP. The year may be 2005, which can lead to the conclusion that the album is overproduced, as much of the Scandinavian acts today are; dry and cheesy. Not here. The drumming sounds authentic and even if it sounds triggered, for a non-drummer-listener, it isn't of much importance. We are speaking about modern day metal, but this is a double-edged blade for some. Now, for the most part, another very annoying aspect of the cheesy-overproduce-syndrome are overamplified keyboards, which surely most of us loathe (I know I do).

Apart from the production, the songs themselves, are before mentioned, pretty straightforward, so fans of progressive or linear structures should be aware to this. This is the kind of record that you put in your CD-player and listen to it not so intense as one may be accustomed to, a kind of "easy-listening" if you want (without meaning to degrade it in any way). This surely is a solid piece of work, something you should certainly check out if you are a fan of Dark Tranquillity, old-In Flames or Dark Age.