How’s that for synchronicity, you wait eight years before releasing a new album and it comes out by pure chance at exactly the same time as the new one by your ex-singer! Well Italian ‘cult’ act Opera IX will always have a place in my heart due to their fantastic debut album ‘Call Of The Woods’ and the following Cadaveria sung releases but despite her leaving they have persevered and sporadically brought out a few albums since she left after 2000 release ‘The Black Opera.’ On reviewing last album ‘Amhisbena’ I was struck by what a change in style they had made as this owed a lot to more of a folk etched Viking, pagan metal sound to the more arcane and black magickal sound of their past. Not that I was complaining as indeed I enjoyed it a lot. On playing this album however I was quickly in no uncertainty that they had done an about turn and gone back more in the direction of their roots; the title of the album perhaps gave that away before I had even pressed play.
An atmospheric intro with obligatory tolling bell, chanting monks, thunder and eerie synth sets things up with plenty of atmosphere before first track proper ‘1313.’ The gruff and hoary vocals of M the Bard come in with mighty intent and guitars scythe away unfortunately once the song goes into overload things all go wrong for me. The problem I really have with the album and at 68 minutes long it’s a constant one that really ruins any enjoyment is the damn clicking drum track. It sounds like a bloody metronome has been left on to play along and it really gets on the nerves. On the various listens to the album I have had, trying to get into it, I have tried to ignore this but it’s a constant source of annoyance and I found it overriding everything else. A sense of majestic melody does at times pervade, often due to the sterling keyboards which have a neat sparkling flow about them on songs like ‘Dead Tree Ballad,’ the Bards vocals are also nicely rough and ready too.
This is an ambitious album, the time taken to record and release has no doubt resulted in an abundance of material. I found this too long to be honest and quickly grew tired of it, partly due to the annoying aforementioned sound and a failure to engage with many of the songs on here. I found this particularly galling as I really wanted to enjoy it more. ‘Mandragora’ has a spark about it and I am not surprised to see that it was a song that got a video filmed for it.
I kind of find myself waiting for the unexpected death grunt on ‘Earth And Fire’ and the interlude at the end of that song and the next, the ritualistic ‘Ecate The Fire (just as it gives my ears a rest from the tin can drums) but with another 20 minutes left the album has well and truly shot its load several times over and I am more than ready to turn it off and go and play the new Cadaveria. Sorry but there is simply nothing remarkable about this and the few good ideas the album has are lost in swamp of tedium and ever constant annoying sound.
http://www.operaix.it
Pete Woods
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