Ethereal Tomb

The first sign of the almost original line-up from "The Key" and "Thresholds" turned out to be something a bit cheated. It was created mostly in order to abandon the idea of Nocturnus AD that was just beginning...or so it seems! Normally, it would be a great excuse to criticize the group by Panzer, Davis and McNenney before the album is launched (including the "new" Browning band), but I will give it up because they did it better than I expected. The rebirth of the first Nocturnus ended with a surprisingly solid, coherent and distant from embarrassment release - something that was not so obvious considering the magnitude of the conflict and the short activity of this reunion.

Interestingly, the rest of the line-up that were on "Ethereal Tomb" does not differ significantly from that of the ep "Nocturnus". So the previous bassist, Emo Mowery, appeared, who additionally added vocal duties, and the only completely new member here was the drummer Rick Bizzaro. Besides, even details such as a changed logo or cover in the type of RPG games from the beginning of the 21st century did not come into a drastically different style of the group (which was often the case with others)! Well, at the first moment of listening, you can even say that "Ethereal Tomb" is simply a logical extension of the themes from "Thresholds". Well, yes...but not quite - let me paraphrase myself in this way.

Even though "Ethereal Tomb" is generally a very good release, it could have been done better in some aspects. First of all, its sound is not powerful, the keyboards have been pushed too much in background (in verses of such "Edge Of Darkness" they are barely audible at all), and on homogeneous slow paces - which is even more surprising, because - as I hear - Bizzaro could play more interesting. Fortunately, that's all of (my) complaints. The rest of the components of "Ethereal..." must be liked, and you can immediately convince yourself of the above disadvantages. As standard, the Davis-McNenney duo works great (as exemplified by, for example, "Search For The Trident", "Orbital Decay", "The Killing" or the aforementioned "Edge Of Darkness"), mysterious atmosphere (despite, as I said, more modest keyboards) , still above-average creativity of the musicians and Mowery's vocals (even with the clean ones in "Paranormal State"!). Admittedly, it does not go beyond the already well-known formula from previous albums, although it's quite listening to it and, as for an allegedly farewell release, it does not evoke absurdity. It turned out better than expected.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2021/07/nocturnus-ethereal-tomb-1999.html