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Vesania > God the Lux > Reviews > Diamhea
Vesania - God the Lux

Join the crowded pantheon. - 80%

Diamhea, February 24th, 2009

In my eyes, God The Lux is the quintessential Vesania album. Clearly reflecting a band at their creative peak, its more focused than their previous release "Firefrost Arcanum" and far superior to the pedestrian "Distractive Killusions". The sheer brutality contrasting with the epic keyboards topped off with Orion's unique vocals makes for a grand listen.

The album is pretentiously laid out in a manner of several "movements" separated by a bevy of atmospheric instrumentals. The instrumentals do indeed add good substance to the album, even if there are a bit too many. My biggest qualm with the album is actually the 25 minute-long "Inlustra Nigror"; simply pointless. The 8 real songs average out to a bit over 4 minutes each, there is plenty of material to chew on here.

As stated earlier, Orion has quite a unique take on black metal vocals. His approach sounds almost like Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir fame, but with a few clean sections and a deeper, less raspy tone. Personally, I feel this fits the music very well, although many critics of the band tend to disagree. Orion and Valeo are quite the veritable duo on the six-string. Interspersed throughout the album are plenty of great leads. The opening riff in "The Mystory" comes to mind immediately, along with the thoroughly headbangable "God The Lux". Bass is, as always, inaudible. Heinrich puts on an impressive live performance, but his contribution remains mostly unknown.

The keyboards are what sets this band apart from the masses. Siegmar is as competent a keyboardist as I've ever heard on a black metal album. His haunting choirs make "Posthuman Kind" perhaps the highlight of the entire album. He promptly falls into the background on heavier songs like "Rest In Pain" and "God The Lux", preventing the over-saturation of the keyboards which is a common pitfall many symphonic acts fall into. Daray is a very skilled, inventive drummer, showing flashes of technical wizardry particularly in "Rest In Pain" that help raise the bar yet again.

Clocking in at around 40 minutes (excluding the 25 minute instrumental at the end), God The Lux is a modestly accessible listen; none of the songs drag on for unreasonable periods of time, and it features the band at their absolute best. Fans of symphonic black metal should start their journey with Vesania here.