Originally posted in Love or Hate? August 15 2015
Title: Monument
Artiste: Cor Scorpii
Genre: Melodic Black Metal
Familiarity: Zero
1. Ei fane svart: Now this is interesting! Melodic Black Metal? Melodic? And they're Norwegian, too. Well, mythsofmetal hasn't steered me wrong yet, so... Opening with piano, that's hopeful certainly. Expecting a big nasty guitar or a roar of .... and there it is. Strong, but almost in a Power Metal way? Ragged vocal, no real surprise there. Put him to one side and let him rant away and concentrate on the music. Guitar work is great and there's some sort of choral vocal thing going on, which almost makes me think of this more in the vein of Viking or Pagan Metal really.
2. Endesong: Not letting up here (you wouldn't expect them to now would you?) but yes indeed some very melodic music if you kind of shut out the vocalist. Nice orchestral piece at the end. Ok, not the end, but near it.
3. I, the damned: Two of these tracks are in English, and this is the first. Not that it matters, as I can't make out a word this guy is singing, but still. Pretty damn fine melody. Sounds like violins there. Breaks down on some nice piano too later on in the song. Kinda hear a few progressive metal elements in here.
4. Our fate, our curse: The other English one, but to be honest I don't feel it has much going for it. Pretty generic.
5. Helvetesfossen: This sounds much better, and is an instrumental which means I don't have to listen to the scratchy vocals. Everybody wins!
6. Oske og innskit: ... and he's back! Good rattling guitar here. You know it's odd, but there's someone credited with “clean vocals” (think he's the keyboard man) but I have yet to hear ... oh right. I hear them now. Well. Yeah, they add a different dimension to the music. Guitar work is amazing here at the end.
7. Kjettar: This is just totally chaotic. Nah, not feeling this. Um, is that harpsichord? Really? Goes into a kind of reel at the end...
8. Bragder i stein: Kind of like a mixture of folk, pagan and black metal. Not bad, not bad.
End result: As Black Metal albums go, this is pretty good, and I can see why the term “melodic” was added. It's certainly a lot less br00tal than some BM I've listened to. Vocals still put me off though. Decent, but I wouldn't see myself returning to these guys any time soon.
So, Love or Hate? Still, for what it is I didn't hate it, so it gets a
Love.