Where Oceans Collide

Yes, we have a second Dark Millennium album before the end of the current millennium… no more huge gaps; which is good cause I personally prefer to have these original troubadours around. They don’t perplex me the way they used to in the past, but their presence on the scene is by all means beneficial.

And I see nothing inherently wrong with this new offering… only that there isn’t any death metal, and there’s very little progressive, at least in the strictest term. “Really!? So what about this huge closer?” Ha, this would be the biggest surprise here; it’s good that you mentioned it so I could cross it off the list: those of you who have lent an ear to the preceding opus are familiar with the encompassing 17.5-min closure “From a Thousand Years of Yore”, a pretty eventful multifarious extravaganza… however, in the case here we have near-12min of meditative idyllic all-instrumental ambience, a possible forgotten chapter from 19th century classical music lore. I know some people who would gladly give a below-zero score for such a shocking twist, but I personally see no reason for a deplorable attitude of the kind. Besides, before it we have solid 50-min of high-quality music so we can’t even talk about any violated equilibrium.

So is it only doom that’s left then? Well, from the old ingredients yes, but there’s been quite a bit of thrash (damage) incorporated the final result not very far from Fear of God’s “Beyond the Veil” including in the brooding dark/gothic atmosphere achieved, the most glaring difference certainly coming from the vocal department where we have the always reliant Christian Mertens whose forceful deathy shouts/semi-shouts lead the show with youthful confidence and quite a bit of drama. On the music front we have sharp infernal shreds which are stompingly insistent on “Vampire's Empire”, and threateningly dynamic on the near-headbangers’ delight “Lovers Die” and the excellent semi-technical twister “Moving Light”. In the first half there’s very little to remind of the guys’ earlier recordings, the preceding one included, the atmospheric quasi-doomy pageant “Insubstantial” bringing things back to more familiar ground, and the album does stay on it for a string of cuts on which even more overt death metal-ish dramatism (“Flesh Is Weak”) can be detected. The trip down memory lane invariably hits a high, on “The Lie Behind the Trust” this happens, a great ethereal doom hymn which concludes the reminiscence chapter with “Diseases Decease” bringing back the highbrow aggression from the start for a rousing riff-fest with said equilibrium restored with the cool funeral procession “In Equilibrium” and by all means with the already dissected sprawling all-instrumental finale.

A pardonable shift in execution, this opus even sounds more appealing than the comeback one, a more diverse compilation of styles which doesn’t sound awkward; on the contrary, the stylistic switches make perfect sense, keeping the tension high without serving too many big surprises save for the closure, of course. But even the latter is a listenable fare, it lulls you and hypnotizes you, a meditation bonus track of some sorts after which you may not see our current millennium as being too dark despite all the viruses, riots, restrictions and all other shite. The band’s music is by no means bright and optimistic, but it’s good to have them around… just when you’re on the verge of depression they will suddenly provide a luminous sunnier twist. Don’t ignore those; their effect can last way beyond this or any other millennium.