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Reviews
Tartarean Desire (www.tartareandesire.com)
Cor Scorpii - Attergangar
Reviewed by Audrey Dujardin March 2006.
Windir disappeared and in the ashes of the band comes a black metal
folk act from ever frostbitten Norway: Cor Scorpii. Sort of sounds
like Italian shrimp… And I still don’t remember how to spell it,
even after listening to the record 5 times.
Interesting songwriting, in English and Norwegian. The melodies are
great for a black/pagan/folk metal album. The first song begins with
very black metal guitars, Mörk Gryning style. Then they remind me
more of Old Man’s Child for some reason. ‘Fall of Man’ has 2 great
rhythmical breaks, and some clean male chanting, which gives the
track a lot of variety. ‘Transcendental Journey’ begins with an
intro that evokes Mortiis having a LARP party with Finntroll,
especially pre-Jaktens Tid period. I think it’s the keyboards.
They’re jumpy and jolly and then the song breaks into some almost
Kovenant style vocals for a second before continuing into an almost
overall Limbonic Art-like track. That’s what the atmosphere of the
track brings to mind. Some simple yet pleasant riffs are packed in
there too… There’s an interesting keyboard section in track 3, and
track 4 comprises some nice melodies and good breaks. Not so sure
about the keyboards on that song though…
As for the production, I’ve heard better but also a lot worse. No
big cracks or snuffed instruments, but the vocals are sort of not in
the right place, but maybe that’s a matter of taste… We’re talking
black metal, let’s not forget. Very black metal guitars, the quick
back and forth picking so typical in Mörk Gryning and a lot of
precursors of black metal is present there, but the riffs are quite
simple although there are nice breaks and interesting rhythm changes
and nice melodies and some clear guitars too. Good vocals, but I’m
not so sure about the production. i‘m very happy with the male choir/chanting/choir
every now and then, which could be a little more dense in my
opinion, ie include more guys chanting together. The balance would
be smoother. Regarding the drums, not too bad I must say, there are
some interesting rhythm changes, more than in standard black metal.
Sometimes fast, sometimes pow-tchack, quite generally alright. There
are very interesting keyboards on here, very Finntrollesque and even
Mortiis-like at times, the keyboards are well balanced on this
record and that’s not so frequent in folk metal bands. That’s a
pleasant surprise.
Half in the record is in English and I think the rest is Norwegian.
(yes I have the lyrics, I’m not just guessing by the sound of the
gurgles) Themes are more or less esoteric, always dark, almost
gothic, despair, disappearing, eternity, you know the drill.
The cover art is simple yet effective and very grim and black metal.
A black and gray (no, not black and white, it’s all in grayscale)
photograph of a building on a lake. Not the record you’d immediately
notice on the stack. Very dark and dejà-vu. But the logo? What logo?
You call German Gothic font a logo? And about the booklet, it exists,
and I only have the promo version, this is a rare delicacy, having a
full booklet in a promo version. It’s not very exciting, there’s no
artwork in there, but there are full lyrics, I appreciate that.
Overall I give this a 7.5 because although this is a style that I
will like no matter what, objectively, there is also more impressive
and catchy in the genre. But this is more elaborate than standard
black metal, so you can definitely give it a go. And guys from
Windir are in there, I know it’s not an objective comment, but that
also means that it’s going to be decent. No make that 7.5 an 8, this
demo deserves encouragement. A great deal of effort has been put
into it. I find new things every time I play the record.
Songwriting/inspiration: 10
Guitars: 8
Vocals: 7
Bass: 7
Production: 8
Lyrics: 8
Cover Art: 5
Logo: 1
Booklet: 8
Audrey Dujardin
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