Ethereal Tomb

After the release of their second album "Thresholds", it'd seem like Nocturnus was gonna go nowhere but up. Except for one problem: They ended up disbanding a year later. And besides a single, it seemed like the band was done for good. However, in 1999, Sean McNenney and Louis Panzer both reformed the band and release an album with new material titled "Ethereal Tomb", which was to showcase the band taking on a more ambient approach. While this sounds good on paper, in practice, I don't think it turned out the way they'd hoped for.

But to see where I'm coming from, let's look at the instruments. Unlike the other albums, the opening tracks "Orbital Decay" starts the album with the guitars and drums instead of the keyboards. The guitar riffs are more technical and comes less with the old-school death metal sound, so its composition feels more rigid and industrial-like. The drumming also takes a bit of a step back, as it's less powerful with its blastbeats, but still gets the job done in maintaining a consistent tempo. The bass, however, is average in its play and doesn't do anything special, though it isn't as sloppy as in The Key. The overall atmosphere is more technical than the previous two albums and is definitely more ambient-driven, but it does feel kind of off. This is mainly stemmed from the production, which does have that modern feel, but it feels less genuine and more robotic, making the whole structure of the song sound artificial, and the uncanny one at that. Not to mention that sometimes, the technical riffing comes off as more of Mike and Sean showing off their guitar skills for the sake of it, which has never been a problem for any other Nocturnus album. There are some good songs like "Apostle of Evil" and "The Killing", but otherwise, the overall execution of the instrumentals is noticeably weaker than in the previous two records.

As for the vocals, they are actually worst than the ones in The Key! To be fair, Emo Mowery's vocals in Tiwanaku were actually really good, but that might've been because that band came after Ethereal Tomb, because in 1999, his vocals were lacking. Take the track "Edge of Darkness" for example, which has that emphasis for modern tech-death like many of the tracks here. Emo's vocals consist of deep growls, which might give the instruments more of an edge on paper. However, the problem is that the delivery is off, and it makes Emo's voice sound more gurgled and weak. Not only that, but his speaking voice in the middle of the track felt out of place and didn't improve the vocals any further. While one could reasonably excuse Mike's vocals in The Key since he was really young, there really isn't any defense for Emo's lousy vocal performance, as it doesn't match the modern technical style here.

On the plus side, though, the songwriting is still strong. I mean, this is Nocturnus. A.k.a., the kings of science fiction horror in death metal, so their stories are still gonna be really good. Take the track "Search for the Trident" for example, where this verse quotes:

Ages ago, Sands of ancient time
Intrigue our minds, on this endless quest
Superior life forms from above
Carved the site beyond the outer islands
To know the truth. The origin of this wonder
Look through this window. See into the past
And you will find. A land of the unknown

This opening verse is really strong, as it sets up the mystery of the land of the unknown with enough details to paint a picture on what it looked like back then. Later on, where they're going to find the lost land, the descriptions are more simple, but still effective enough to accurately portray the journey. And as for the execution of the lyrics, they're actually pretty decent. The more ambient-driven style of the riffs do enhance the atmosphere of the lost land well, and Emo's vocals are a bit better on the track, so his growls enhance the strength of the mysterious land. Other tracks don't execute the stories as well, especially in "Paranormal States", but regardless, the songwriting quality is still as strong as ever.

But sadly, not even the lyrics are enough to stop this album from feeling below average overall. With a weak execution of the ambient style and Emo's poor vocal performance, this feels more like a bad clone of Nocturnus. Even the album cover doesn't feel right, as it doesn't have the iconic Nocturnus logo nor the technical complexities of the artwork itself. Then again, you can't judge a book by its cover, and I really wanted to like this album, but it just didn't work for me overall. I'd still suggest you give it a listen, but be cautious that this isn't gonna sound anything like the previous two records.