Maeth : " Shrouded Mountain"

I went into this thinking these guys were a doom band. This might have colored my first impression of this band was that they had a Jesu like thing going on with the layered vocals. So I was a little caught off guard by the math metal that would eventually dominate this song. The vocals shift into more of a death metal growl. When you get into the second song the flute solo that has been wandering over everything begins to annoy me, which is unfortunate as the chords under neath it take on a more hypnotic and exotic blend. They rifss build into some more angular, but with solid groove wedged into the craziness that reminds me at this point more of Cynic.

The first of the two songs that clock in at over ten minutes is called "Shrouded". This one only breaks the ten minute mark by sixteen seconds. This is time that was wasted in the first two minutes for them to actually get into the real song and not just play around like they are tuning their instruments. Even when the effects heavy guitars do swell up, they still manage to keep wasting time. When it begins to seem like a reall song is about to take form it's some kind of folk influence post-rock. It does build in intensity, but still feels like more of an interlude.

"Naga" could be the intro to a Dream Theater song. Though no Journey like vocals come in and they do not bust into something that is more of a power ballad. In the end it's about as eventful as most instrumentals that are not vehicles for guitar solos. The vocals return for the last and longest song of the album. The come back as a low multi-tracked growl. The chug is slow and powerful, but more sludge than doom. The vocals stay low in the mix as this song eventually swells into something that sounds more like a post-rock version of Tool. These guys are talented , I think the first couple of songs key into where their sound should go, I'll give this a 6.5.