Artist: Mistweaver
Title: Tales From the Grave
Type: Album
Label: Casket Music

Mistweaver...from....Spain. Hmmm. I don’t know exactly how many mists there are in Spain, let alone how many weavers (and that’s before I’ve even touched on weavers of mists), but I do know that this is a rather fine slab of orchestral melodic death metal, the likes of which we just don’t hear too much of these days. Spain isn’t really a massive hotbed of heavy metal – or at least not the heavy metal that finds itself on my CD rack (other than Haemorrhage, that is), and so it was with no small amount of trepidation that I placed the shiny little silver disc into the stereogram. I shouldn’t have been so worried. Mistweaver ply their trade in atmospheric, intricate heavy melodic death metal. These days, it seems as if all melodic death metal is basically another way of describing raging thrash metal rather than the deathly side of things, but Mistweaver have brought the true spirit of the genre back with them on “Tales From The Grave”. The star of the piece here is undoubtedly the guitar playing of senors Alonso and Weaver, who manage to construct complex, evocative melodies throughout the platter. As an exemplar, “Into The Realms Of The Dead” feature Maiden-like twin guitars, some atmospheric melancholy reminiscent of Dissection and outright death metal riffery. The strong symphonic element comes courtesy of the keyboards, which are placed prominently in the mix’ mostly to great effect, but occasionally a little too intrusively and distracting from the great guitar work. Vocally, Raul has a full, effective gruff growl not unlike early Amorphis, and perfectly suited to the music.

A really engaging listen, “Tales from the Grave” absolutely oozes atmosphere from the off. The production is just about right – none too polished, but clear and bright enough to allow the intricacies of the guitar parts to be individually discerned. The rawness of the guitar tone works well in contrast against the opulent richness of the synth tones, providing an extra layer of delicacy to an already sophisticated piece of art. So yes, in places the keyboards can be slightly over wrought, but in general, this is destined to be a well loved minor cult classic, and my new favourite from Spain.

http://www.myspace.com/mistweaverband

Chris Davison

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