Reviewed - 04/10/05
Wrathorn
[Adipocere Records]
What the hell does Naumachia mean, anyway? I tried looking it up, but came up empty. It must be one of those made up words that bands like to make up all the time. Maybe it means "Lots Of Keyboards" in Polish or something, because Poland's Numachia like to use a lot of keyboards. Lots. I may at most like one out of every ten albums that use keyboards, and "Wrathorn", Naumachia's debut album falls in the nine that I generally do not like. But they do have some glimpses of greatness to be found here and there if you look hard enough. Let's explore these.
For one, while the keyboards are a-plenty, they are for the most part done in a way to resemble a Grand Piano. When they are done like this, it sounds great and lends an aire of gothic-ness to the whole sound. There are a few "dreamy" synth parts that gnaw at my nerves, but for the majority of the time (I'd say sixty percent of the time) we are treated to the piano style. I wish this was the style they used throughout the entire album. The metal portion of the disc is very melodic Black Metal leaning towards sounding orchestral at times. It's almost too melodic for my tastes though. There are some great guitar harmonies found throughout the album, but it sounds too clean and sterile for my tastes much like the newer Cradle Of Filth stuff. I'm not saying Naumachia sounds like Cradle Of Filth. Maybe they do a bit, but I'm just comparing "Wrathorn" to how Cradle's music got too overproduced for its own good later on in their career. The musicians involved on this album are very professional, that much is clear, but they try to "showboat" a lot with fancy leads and odd breakdowns. It's almost like this is a Progressive Black Metal album, if that is at all possible. It's kind of odd complaining about a band sounding too good, but it just comes off too watered down for me in the end to get overly excited. One of the best things on the album is the end of the last song turns into a metalized version of Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger", Rocky's theme song.
The lyrics... are interesting to say the least. They are written by two people that aren't in the band named Psychoclown and Melissa. Psychoclown's lyrics are rather well done and seem darker/more evil than Melissa's. Melissa's lyrics focus on loneliness, despair, alcoholism and dark and sinister dreams. All things that are "poor me" in nature. These lyrics are just really cliché and boring to me. They are written out more like poetry than songs, so that may be a reason why I don't like them very well. Also, I swear the band and these lyricists got together and said "Hey, let's see how many times we can say "fuck" in our lyrics" because that word is on the album in one form or another about fifteen times. I don't care one way or another if a band cusses/swears on their album, but at a certain point it becomes ridiculous. Maybe next time they can mix it up with a few "shit"'s and "cocksucker"'s?!?!
There's nothing I can complain about the production on "Wrathorn". Most everything sounds perfect, but like I said it's too sterile. This is not something you'd usually hear me say about a production because I am all for the best production possible. But with all of these keyboards WAY out in the front like they are, the production could have used some work to tone those down a bit. I know they tried for this sound to bring the keyboards out more in the mix, and it worked, but it's just too much for my tastes.
The layout and packaging surrounding "Wrathorn" is done really well. The cover art has some sort of deeply colored symmetrical design. I have no idea what it is, but it looks cool. In the middle of the design there's an Egyptian cross which sort of stands out because there's nothing about this album Egyptian in nature. The inside of the booklet contains all of the lyrics printed in an easy to read font style and color. You'll also find a neat icon of some sort and a few band photos.
Fans of heavily keyboard laden melodic Black Metal may want to check "Wrathorn" out. I can see Graveworm and Cradle Of Filth fans getting into this album with ease, though Naumachia doesn't touch Graveworm's greatness. Also, while this album is not Power Metal, it does have qualities that Power Metal fans might like as well. As for the majority of you, I can neither recommend this album or recommend that you not to get it. It's a good album, but it never does anything to push it above being just good either. There's a hundred other albums out there on the market like this already so if you own all of those and like them, by all means go and get this as this is just as good but no better than any of those. As for me, I see the potential for something good in Naumachia that hopefully they can harness for their next album. If they could just find something unique to offer the listener I can see this band going places.
[Adipocere Records]
What the hell does Naumachia mean, anyway? I tried looking it up, but came up empty. It must be one of those made up words that bands like to make up all the time. Maybe it means "Lots Of Keyboards" in Polish or something, because Poland's Numachia like to use a lot of keyboards. Lots. I may at most like one out of every ten albums that use keyboards, and "Wrathorn", Naumachia's debut album falls in the nine that I generally do not like. But they do have some glimpses of greatness to be found here and there if you look hard enough. Let's explore these.
For one, while the keyboards are a-plenty, they are for the most part done in a way to resemble a Grand Piano. When they are done like this, it sounds great and lends an aire of gothic-ness to the whole sound. There are a few "dreamy" synth parts that gnaw at my nerves, but for the majority of the time (I'd say sixty percent of the time) we are treated to the piano style. I wish this was the style they used throughout the entire album. The metal portion of the disc is very melodic Black Metal leaning towards sounding orchestral at times. It's almost too melodic for my tastes though. There are some great guitar harmonies found throughout the album, but it sounds too clean and sterile for my tastes much like the newer Cradle Of Filth stuff. I'm not saying Naumachia sounds like Cradle Of Filth. Maybe they do a bit, but I'm just comparing "Wrathorn" to how Cradle's music got too overproduced for its own good later on in their career. The musicians involved on this album are very professional, that much is clear, but they try to "showboat" a lot with fancy leads and odd breakdowns. It's almost like this is a Progressive Black Metal album, if that is at all possible. It's kind of odd complaining about a band sounding too good, but it just comes off too watered down for me in the end to get overly excited. One of the best things on the album is the end of the last song turns into a metalized version of Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger", Rocky's theme song.
The lyrics... are interesting to say the least. They are written by two people that aren't in the band named Psychoclown and Melissa. Psychoclown's lyrics are rather well done and seem darker/more evil than Melissa's. Melissa's lyrics focus on loneliness, despair, alcoholism and dark and sinister dreams. All things that are "poor me" in nature. These lyrics are just really cliché and boring to me. They are written out more like poetry than songs, so that may be a reason why I don't like them very well. Also, I swear the band and these lyricists got together and said "Hey, let's see how many times we can say "fuck" in our lyrics" because that word is on the album in one form or another about fifteen times. I don't care one way or another if a band cusses/swears on their album, but at a certain point it becomes ridiculous. Maybe next time they can mix it up with a few "shit"'s and "cocksucker"'s?!?!
There's nothing I can complain about the production on "Wrathorn". Most everything sounds perfect, but like I said it's too sterile. This is not something you'd usually hear me say about a production because I am all for the best production possible. But with all of these keyboards WAY out in the front like they are, the production could have used some work to tone those down a bit. I know they tried for this sound to bring the keyboards out more in the mix, and it worked, but it's just too much for my tastes.
The layout and packaging surrounding "Wrathorn" is done really well. The cover art has some sort of deeply colored symmetrical design. I have no idea what it is, but it looks cool. In the middle of the design there's an Egyptian cross which sort of stands out because there's nothing about this album Egyptian in nature. The inside of the booklet contains all of the lyrics printed in an easy to read font style and color. You'll also find a neat icon of some sort and a few band photos.
Fans of heavily keyboard laden melodic Black Metal may want to check "Wrathorn" out. I can see Graveworm and Cradle Of Filth fans getting into this album with ease, though Naumachia doesn't touch Graveworm's greatness. Also, while this album is not Power Metal, it does have qualities that Power Metal fans might like as well. As for the majority of you, I can neither recommend this album or recommend that you not to get it. It's a good album, but it never does anything to push it above being just good either. There's a hundred other albums out there on the market like this already so if you own all of those and like them, by all means go and get this as this is just as good but no better than any of those. As for me, I see the potential for something good in Naumachia that hopefully they can harness for their next album. If they could just find something unique to offer the listener I can see this band going places.
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Tracklist:
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| Rating: 7/10 | |
| Release Date: 2004 | |
| Length: 40:26 | |
| Review By: Britton Dicks | |
| Total Reviews: (1) | |
| Bands Website: Go Here | |
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