Mors Principium Est : "Embers of a Dying World"

This is death metal for people whose favorite band is Dream Theater. I am ok with death metal being melodic, but it still needs to be dark. When it sounds like you are wearing pirate shirts then it doesn't come across as aggressive to me. This is a similar problem that I have with Dark Tranquility. I know some people consider this band to be a big deal so I am going to keep listening. If you jerk off to dudes jerking off on guitars then you will also like this album. By the time I make it to "Into the Dark" it is all beginning to run to together for me. I can hear where the At the Gates influence sets in for this sort of thing. Since they are from Finland I would have thought they were going to be darker and not such a strong Swedish influence would be present. It's well executed and crafted , but doesn't strike me as having much in the way of balls as from the double bass and vocals.

Some of the guitar melodies almost layer a coat of cheese to the beginning of "Death is the Beginning" which has it's fate sealed in flowers by the female vocals that come in. This would be pretty heavy for Nightwish. They open up "the Ghost" with a very ballad like piano part before coming up with a late 80s power metal groove. There is more of a thrash feel to this song making it one of the better ones. Ville the led growler has a good lower growl when he chooses to go down there but uses more of a mid range At the Gates like growl most of the time. The lower one is heavier to me. I can deal with the flowery goth that opens "Agns Dei" even if it is an interlude to showcase a guitar solo that would work better as part of a larger song.

These guys might work better as a dramatic thrash band as that is what is happening on "the Colors of the Cosmos" which is a pretty damn good song. There is a more neo-classical power metal vibe underlying the last song "Apprentice of Death". This one has some groove and things lock in well together. Pretty solid and these guys need to put away the flower arrangements more often to get more power behind their punch. I'll round this one up to an 8, the album sounds good and they are good what they do , what they do isn't how I prefer my death metal and has too much wanking around.... but you might be a wanker and into that.