MORMANT DE SNAGOV - FINLAND

MORMANT DE SNAGOV - DEPTHS BELOW SPACE AND EXISTENCE - LOUD RAGE MUSIC  
The Finnish band with more than one Romanian connection has released this its third full-length. It is 45 minutes long and starts with the Mentor Deceived intro, a minute and a half piece that gains momentum after starting a la a jazzy ballad! Never Speak Aloud is next and speeds up in real black metal style, however slower and mid-paced sections appear soon after. The full opener is nevertheless enjoyable even when the seemingly inevitable keyboards give it an Emperor feel. The keyboards are nowhere near ever present. Resist flows well after the preceding and keep up the tempo and black metal lyricism of not resisting to feast on corpses and such. The nine minutes long Stories Untold (or is that the never ending story?) is long enough to contain various tempos and elements. It is easy to guess that the song includes a slow, melodic section or two. Pianos on this song are courtesy of Matias Mantyranta. Battle Neverending has a bit of Immortal in it but the extras, melodic and even doomy sections obscure and bury that comparison. You're Next follows and fools the listener into expecting more melody but turns up the tempo. Writhe Infinite almost does the same thing with fast singing vocals of M. Lehtivuori providing a brutal highlight. The Roots Of Grief features heavy riffing, it is a relatively mid-paced song before falling silent gradually, it can deservedly be called black metal. – Anna Tergel