MYSTIC CHARM - Shadows of the
Unknown (MEMENTO MORI - CD 2013)
Dutch death metal scene from the early / mid
90’s was something truly special, in my opinion, and the number of killer bands
there was just very impressive and this is also a reason why I always thought
that Holland has the best death metal underground along with the Sweden. I am
not going to bring now the names of all these killer and totally classic bands,
there is no point, but I strongly believe that whoever reads it, then he knows
these bands as well. And I do not mean just these well known bands, which had
contracts with major metal labels, but also those smaller ones, which maybe
only manage to put out couple of demos or something, but still were just damn
cool. And I mention Dutch death metal scene here for some reason… I am going to
review now one of such classic but relatively little known death bands from the
old days. They were called Mystic Charm. This was kind of special band, because
– just as Acrostichon – they also had a female vocalist, Rini Lipman, whose
vocals were one of the things, which made the sound of Mystic Charm kind of
special, you know? Anyway, the band has released some good stuff in the past;
“Endless Sickness” demo 1992, “Lost Empire” EP 1993 and finally “Shadows of the
Unknown” CD 1994. I remembered the album briefly, as I used to have it on
cassette years ago, but it got lost somewhere... And I never had a chance to
get the CD version of the album (there never was LP version, which I hope shall
be fixed one day and someone will invest his money to release it on vinyl!), so
I was quite happy seeing Memento Mori re-issuing “Shadows of the Unknown” on
CD. I got this re-release and finally can listen to Mystic Charm again!
To describe the musical style of “Shadows of
the Unknown”, it is quite easy. Doom / death metal – voila! Yeah, while the
basis of the band’s style lies within the death metal realm, their music is
just filled with the doomy stuff; tempos are mostly slow, kind of sorrowful,
the same goes for the melodies and overall atmosphere of the music. Certainly
it is not an album for those, who seek for brutality, gore, low vocals, fast
tempos and shredding guitars. But then if you enjoy such bands as As Serenity
Fades, early The Gathering, Spina Bifida, Beyond Belief, Mythic and so on and
on, then you may want to take a listen and I am sure that you’ll like Mystic
Charm. I cannot say that “Shadows of the Unknown” is a very heavy and brutal record.
I guess the production is quite weird here and is one of the reasons why for
some of you this album won’t be heavy and brutal enough. And for doom / death
it may even be not depressive enough hehe! Anyway, the band did manage to
create dark and gloomy atmosphere, which is good, and had some really cool
ideas for their music. The band tried to diverse their music, by using many
atmospheric parts, which are spread all over it… So, there are used some acoustic
guitars, keyboards, whispered vocals and more melodic riffs (especially in such
songs as “Mystic Charms” or “Lost Empire”), so it definitely is very dark
sounding album, but one can still feel that sometimes the music tends to be slightly
monotonous, especially if the riffing and arrangements are relatively simple
and they do not bring anything original and unheard before. Anyway, there are
some truly great songs, I especially like “Mystic Charms”, “Deadly Embrace”,
“Saved Soul” and “Endless Sickness”. These ghoulish vocals of Rini Pipman are
something what will bring your attention as well, certainly her performance and
sound of vocals only added something special to the overall sound of the band.
OK, I can say once again that for some it may not be brutal enough and some
would probably prefer deeper, lower vocals, but well… at least here we have
something original.
This re-issue of “Shadows of the Unknown” along
with the whole alum contains also the first demo of Mystic Charm, titled
“Endless Sickness” and it is a great addition to the whole CD. I must sincerely
admit that I kind of prefer this demo over the album, maybe because I like the
production more, it is rawer, but really cool and also Rini’s vocals sounded
very demonic here, which is great. This demo contains four songs, some of which
were also on the album, but I can hear that some arrangements are slightly
different and so are the lyrics I think.
Resuming everything, I can only recommend
“Shadows of the Unknown” to all the fans of doomy death metal and I can also
express my happiness that Memento Mori saved this album from ceasing in the
oblivion. Shiver Records, who released this CD originally, did absolutely
nothing for the band to promote this album, so it kind of laid in the third row
of the death metal records, almost disappearing completely. This new CD version
is cool resurrection of the album and along with the bonus demo, it also
contains some liner notes in the booklet plus an alternative version of the
front cover (luckily the original one is also here, so you can actually choose
which cover you want to be in the front… I always go for the original, no
matter how bad it was hehe!). So, well one Memento Mori.
Standout tracks: “Mystic Charms”, “Deadly
Embrace”, “Saved Soul”, “Endless Sickness”
Final rate: 70/100
No comments:
Post a Comment