Mbelekôrolindalë

This is a five track EP from Dissipate released this year. It is the band’s first release and it is released on Pest Productions. It consists of a moderate length intro and outro and three central tracks. The whole thing is Lord of the Rings based.

So the first track starts – it’s a prologue/intro and of course I’m going to say it sounds like Summoning. Full casio-symphony and practically the same drum tone. That being said I think it sounds good, it really builds you up and by the last 20 seconds I was practically itching for the EP to gut punch me with the first track – then – ugh, false climax, it moves into crackling fire and battle sounds. I feel ripped off immediately.

The track proper starts and I’m not digging this. It feels chaotic in a bad way, really squeaky guitar which I could swear sounds like its being played on a keyboard, masticating up and down. You can really feel that this first proper track, and its almost 8 minutes long, doesn’t really know where its going. It feels overlong even by minute three. Not a good start after the cheesy but rousing intro. At parts I’m also hearing out of place drum fills that only seem to sound in the left speaker, a minor issue but since I’m not enjoying the music these sorts of things stand out more, becoming more irritating and less forgivable. Overall its flat, flailing around for its overinflated length – then it ends, you’ve gone nowhere.

There’s also the dreaded harpsicord on this album, but really it’s seems to be the guitar failures – both in tone and riffs/melodies, and the songs ineffectual progression that let this EP down so much. You have no idea what is going to happen next, you feel something should be coming then it doesn’t materialize correctly – there’s an angst due to the unpredictability, almost the failure to provide drops, breakdowns or climaxes in any of the points where you would naturally anticipate them, seemingly born of poor song composition. Vocals are pretty monotone, high growls perhaps as a description, though there is a strange clean interlude on Chapter II - Darkening of Valinor along with the harpsicord going budget Sonata Arctica for a bizarre section.

All in all it doesn’t work as an EP, I don’t want to trash it too much as a first effort, since I do see potential here, especially in the last of the three main tracks Chapter III - Fall of Minas Ithil - it hits you with this simultaneous brutal blastbeat and nice riff that had me wanting more, a well placed break with good fills then the riff + blastbeat comes back in at exactly the right moment. It stands out almost because this sort of thing is so lacking from the rest of the EP – I listened to this track by itself a few times and really dig it, though a single track can’t elevate the whole work.

I feel there’s potential with this, little glimmers here and there through the EP, but it is certainly not realized yet.